Dad's Gaming Addictionhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com
"A family that games together, stays together."Tue, 15 Aug 2017 23:03:36 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.137360167PRESS RELEASE: “Cauldron: Bubble and Boil” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-cauldron-bubble-and-boil-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-cauldron-bubble-and-boil-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondFri, 04 Aug 2017 19:51:02 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36600It is time to select a new coven leader. But how? By doing what witches do best, of course: HEXING, GARDENING, and POTION BREWING! Break out your CAULDRONS because it is time to play CAULDRON: BUBBLE AND BOIL (by INDIE Game Developer Rob Booth)! The game is nearly ready to go to the printers but in order to do so, CAULDRON: BUBBLE AND BOIL NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!

Cauldron: Bubble and Boil is a game for 2-4 players where you compete to brew the most valuable potions to become leader of the coven and wield the powerful Hag’s Eye. However, you must grow the ingredients first and that takes time. However, you can take shortcuts and use your magic to steal other players ingredients, or try to ruin their efforts. But be careful, Hexing (casting spells) causes corruption which may ruin your own efforts to brew the best potions.

There are multiple tiers / levels of support. The minimum pledge is $39 and nets you a copy of the base game along with all unlocked stretch goals. The first stretch goal is the Advanced Victory Conditions Deck. These cards can be used to change the game’s scoring rubrics that vary from game to game. These will impact your strategies as you play the game, adding even more replay value to the game! Reaching the second stretch goal allows us to print Cauldron: Bubble and Boil in better card stock, upgrading to 300 gsm card stock (with a chance to upgrade it further with later stretch goals). The third stretch goal adds the optional Moon Deck. This separate set of cards that follow the phases of the moon. Each of the phases of the moon (e.g. waxing gibbous, full moon) will affect that turn in a specific way. The moon deck operates like an event deck that affects all players. You’ll have to check out the game’s Kickstarter page to see more.

Many of the critic reviews were positive, often citing how easy the game was to pick up and play. Having looked over the PDF rulebook I can see where they’re coming, though there are a number of variants listed as well as rules for advanced gameplay. I have to say that I found the components featured in the pictures to be attractive and eye-catching. It’ll be interesting to see what the final game looks like once it releases. The game is almost halfway funded, having reached a total of $6,081 pledged of the $14,700 goal as of the time of this posting. 21 days remain, so get your cauldron spoons and potions ready!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-cauldron-bubble-and-boil-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036600The Visitor (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-visitor-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-visitor-preview/#respondTue, 01 Aug 2017 22:57:59 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36575“E.T.” was one of my favorite movies as a kid. There’s just something about that little alien that made him so darned likable. “The Visitor”, a game that’ll be seeking funding through the Kickstarter process soon, reminds me a lot of the aforementioned movie. In short, an alien craft has arrived on Earth and of course, they don’t go unnoticed. A female “kid” and “agents” both see the craft go down and race toward it, only to be met by a barrier. The kid and the agents will have to try to figure out what the pass-code/rule is in order to get through. In essence, it’s like “Codenames” with an “E.T.” theme. Special thanks to the folks at Tiltfactor for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not reflective of the final product, making everything you read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

My prototype came with 100 object cards, one visitor shield, four role cards, four guess tokens, one barrier board, one trust board, one trust token, and twenty-four card stands. “The Visitor” supports 3-5 players and can be played by an age range of 8 or older. The average play time, if you know what you’re doing, takes about ten minutes. One player will be the “visitor”, one player will be the “kid”, and the rest of the players will be agents. If the kid manages to get through the barrier before the agents do, both the visitor and kid win. If the visitor runs out of cards or if any one of the agents get through the barrier first, then said agent wins.

As the visitor, the player will be inventing a pass-rule in the style of a “Family Feud” question…that is, “Things that are heavy” or “Things that cost more than $100”. This is the pass-rule that will get the agents and kid through the barrier and must be figured out by said players. The visitor is clearly rooting for the kid and depending on the trust level, the visitor will be able to provide additional clues to the kid to give her an advantage. The trust factor can be raised when the agents guess the pass-rule incorrectly or during the kid’s turn when she’s predicting whether an object card is “in” or “out”. Without getting too much into the logistics, each player will be dealt objective cards that will help players determine what the pass-rule is.

On the kid’s turn, they can play a card from their hand for all to see and then predict it as “in” or “out”. A card is “in” when it matches the pass-rule. For example, if the visitor’s secret pass-rule is “things that are heavy” and the girl plays an airplane object card guessing it as “in”, she would have predicted correctly and gained trust. She can push her luck and keep predicting up to three cards however one wrong guess ends her turn immediately and no trust is gained. The kid cannot make a guess as to what the pass-rule is (prove action) until the trust value is three or higher, but does gain benefits from trust increases in general.

On the visitor’s turn, the visitor will play one card from their hand and classify it as “in” or “out”. If the trust tracker is three or higher, only the kid can see the card. Otherwise, all players see it and whether or not it’s “in” or “out”. If the visitor has no cards in their hand at the start of their turn, all the agents win. Agents choose a card on their turn and show it in secret to the visitor, who must classify it without showing the kid (using card stands). They can also guess the rule (in secret as well), but a wrong answer increases the trust level by 2 helping the kid accomplish her goal.

There’s more to the game than that, but that’s the jist of it. While the game works best with 3-4 players, you could, in theory, play with two players by removing the agents and just playing a cooperative game. I haven’t hashed out specific rules for this idea, however I imagine it could go something along the lines of, “the kid has to figure out the pass-rule before the visitor runs out of cards”. Of course, you’d have to experiment with rule changes to balance the game to your play-style and needs. You’d admittedly be cutting out the best part of the game (the kid vs. agents race), however two players COULD be done. Just don’t expect the same experience.

I found the idea of a pass-rule interesting and very akin to “Mastermind” and “Guess Who”. I also found it interesting than players no need to know what the pass-rule is in order to pass the barrier. You see, when guessing, four cards are drawn from the deck and the guesser has to classify them as “in” or “out”. If they’re correct on all four cards, they win. It’s possible that the pass-rule that the kid/agent was thinking of wasn’t exactly what the visitor had chosen, but it was close enough to where the classifications matched anyway.

“The Visitor” certainly brought back those nostalgic memories of watching E.T. on my living room floor. While this game didn’t feature the kid flying through the air on a bike, the theme was close enough for my liking. I can’t comment on the components or box as everything was prototype (the box was a set of baggies and clips), but I felt that everything was fairly easy to look at and understand. Tiltfactor didn’t let me down with “Monarch” (their last game) and I have a feeling that “The Visitor” will be just as pleasing to look at once it’s finalized and retailing.

Edit: The game was renamed “VISITOR” after the posting of this article.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-visitor-preview/feed/036575Wizard Rollhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/wizard-roll/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/wizard-roll/#respondSat, 08 Jul 2017 17:05:34 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36582How many parents out there have kids who love to pretend that they are Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, or Hermione Granger? Heck, maybe even you have been known to cast a spell or two! “Wizard Roll”, a simple tabletop family game, lets you do just that. You’ll be rolling dice and claiming elements/runes in order to be the first to complete spells and thus earn points. The first player to seven points wins. Special thanks to the folks at RoosterFin Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Due to medical issues I opted to convey the gameplay in a video as opposed to writing out the rules. I think it’s more fun to do it this way anyway. For those that don’t want to watch it, the rules are actually pretty easy to explain. The rulebook is actually just a double-sided sheet so it takes maybe five minutes to grasp the concept and understand what’s going on. This makes the game very family-friendly, though it does end up making the game extremely luck-based. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but there are a lot of hardcore gamers out there who despise dice-rolling games for that reason. If you’re looking for something in-depth and complicated with dice-manipulation mechanics, keep looking.

On the other hand…if you’re a casual gamer family or looking for something that your picky grandparents can play with your kids, “Wizard Roll” is a great choice. The components are fairly large, nice to look at, and very durable. I think it’s a bit too casual to be a filler for the above mentioned seriously strategic gamer as the only real strategy the game has to offer is that it encourages you to remember what your opponent needs for their card (there are times where you have to give them a rune or element). To that end “Wizard Roll” is very genre-specific, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good game and it clearly does what it sets out to do very well.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/wizard-roll/feed/036582Century: Spice Roadhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/century-spice-road/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/century-spice-road/#respondSat, 01 Jul 2017 00:29:35 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36566“Century: Spice Road” is, as best as I can explain it, a resource-management deck/hand builder that’s extremely easy to play. Everyone starts with the same two cards but can buy more later from a general pool, like in “Star Realms“. The whole idea is to use these cards to acquire different spices (cubes) and then turning those cubes in to acquire victory point cards. Our first game took about forty minutes or so, but a lot of our time was spent trying to figure out which spices to trade for what spices and how to manipulate our caravan (cube pool of ten max cubes) to get the cube colors we want.

This game is an easy recommend at a price point of $30 or less. I’ve seen it go as high as $50 on Amazon due to supply and demand, so shop around if you can as I got my copy on Miniature Market for about $25. For medical reasons, I’ve opted to simply link a video of our first game below so you can see how it plays. Hopefully I can get back to typing out full reviews at some point. See my news section for more information on that. As for this game, it’s most certainly a keeper.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/century-spice-road/feed/036566Duresshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/duress/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/duress/#respondWed, 24 May 2017 21:42:00 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36556As a former member of the United States Chess Federation, I admit to being a little intrigued when I saw the offer to review “Duress”. At first glance, the game looked like a cross between “Scrabble” and “Chess”. I came to learn that it was similar to “Scrabble” in looks only (what with the lettered tiles) as no spelling is actually involved. Instead, players take turns drawing a chess tile from a bag then moving one of their lettered pieces using that chess piece’s move rules. The goal? Move your colored tiles (A-P) onto the yellow goal letters in the middle of the board before your opponent does. Special thanks to the folks at Doctor Rocket, LLC. for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Due to ongoing medical issues (yes, still!) I opted to cover this game mostly via the video linked below. It goes through the details of how to play as well as shows what a typical game might look like…Vinnie did an excellent job helping as usual.

Did I like “Duress”? For the most part, yes. The game is more luck based as you’ll be drawing a random chess tile from the bag that determines how you’ll move that turn. With bad luck, you can keep drawing pawn after pawn. To be fair, the manual does have a number of alternate rule suggestions in the back of the manual and reducing the number of pawn tiles (there are eight normally) is one of them. Because of this luck factor, “Duress” is strategic, but not in the same way as “Chess”. Rather than having the freedom to move any piece you want on your move, you’ll more than likely be setting your letters up to reach their goal positions as efficiently as possible. That is…moving a letter in such a way that you can reach your goal via bishop, queen, pawn, or king all at once on the next turn (assuming you draw one).

I did have some minor quibbles. The game instructs players to draw a random tile from the bag on their turn. Well, the only bags that comes with the game are zipped and see-thru. A non-transparent cloth bag would have been ideal as it could have been used as storage as well when putting everything away. Unless I missed it, the rulebook doesn’t tell you what to do with the chess tile after you draw it and move a letter piece. Logically, it made the most sense to put it back in the bad as opposed to creating a discard pile to which all of them would return to the bag once the bag emptied.

The positives outweigh the negatives however. “Duress” is both clever and different while still adopting rules from an extremely popular abstract game. It doesn’t replace “Chess” and I doubt anything could, but it’s a nice two-player game to bust out to get your “Chess” fix without actually playing it. Just be aware that it’s not fully a game of skill like “Chess” is…you’re going to draw pawn after pawn sometimes and it’ll set you behind despite all the clever blocking and planning you might have done. Still, it’s fun and worth the twenty bucks, the current price of the game on Amazon as of the date of this posting. Use the Amazon sidebar (links often break as products move around on that site) to search for it and give it a look!

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/duress/feed/036556Qinhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/qin/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/qin/#respondTue, 23 May 2017 16:36:54 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36551I had the pleasure of discovering this really easy (yet deep) abstract strategy game that reminded me of “Tigris and Euphrates” and “Acquire” in the way that you could absorb territory on the board. The goal is to be the first to get all of the pagodas of your color onto the board. There are other game ending conditions, but that’s what you’re aiming for. Everything about the game is fantastic and only requires about thirty minutes of your time. The rulebook is one sheet, front and back. I opted to cover the game in a video as opposed to writing out a review. Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed “Qin”!

Final Verdict: 10/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/qin/feed/036551BIOTIXhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/biotix/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/biotix/#commentsSun, 21 May 2017 00:32:18 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36543Ever wanted to play a biology-themed game without all that confusing biology? “BIOTIX” is what you’ll want to play as your sole goal is to get as many different types of BIOTIX onto your petri dish card as possible at the end of a day. You’ll have to be careful though…your petri dish can only handle so many BIOTIX of a particular color. Going over causes a bio-reaction, the effects of which change depending on the color. You earn points for the BIOTIX still on your petri dish when the day ends and the player with the most points after three days, wins. Special thanks to Curt Covert from Smirk and Dagger Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Due to medical issues I opted to cover the rules and gameplay in a video which I posted at the end of this article. As far as a review goes, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It plays very quickly (20-30 minutes) and still leaves players with a lot to think about. When drawing BIOTIX on your turn, for example, you can place them on ANY petri dish you want. See your opponent maxed out on their blue BIOTIX? Why not give them one when you draw it…good things are bound to happen, honestly! Actually, in that case, your opponent would be forced to give 1 blue BIOTIX (called Migratory BIOTIX) to each player and trash the rest in the petri dish. Each BIOTIX has a different effect and point value…oftentimes the colored BIOTIX that offer the most points (called their intrinsic value)at the end of the day are the most volatile.

I do like the inclusion of “The Eureka Paradox”, which allows a player that is 20 points or more behind the leader an attempt to catch up. At the end of the second day, said player will secretly write a BIOTIX color along with a number from 1-3. If they meet that goal at the end of the third day, they earn 30 points to their score (25 in a five player game). There are also black (aggressive BIOTIX) for an advanced game…essentially they act as wilds that could against your score at the end of the day UNLESS you have only ALL black BIOTIX in your petri dish. In that case, each black BIOTIX is worth 5 points instead of -2.

My only real gripe with the game is the inclusion of stickers. I know, that not a bad thing…but there are so many of them and they require a bit of dexterity and grace to put on the meeples. Granted, you don’t HAVE to use the stickers, but they do add personality to the game. The rulebook was also a tad confusing…usually I see terms like “setup” and “gameplay”…instead, the rulebook calls them “methods” and “procedure” to keep with the scientific theme. Again, this is a MINOR gripe and does not break the game. I just found it different and it messed with my OCD ever so slightly.

“BIOTIX” is an awesome little biology game, period. It’s not meant to be educational…rather, it just encourages you to blow up your opponent’s petri dish so that they have to discard BIOTIX and by extension, points. I enjoyed the theme, the quality of the components, and the gameplay. It’s an easy recommend for family game night as it supports up to five players. It’s also fairly cheap on Amazon right now as of the date of this posting (about $15-20), go search for it using my Amazon sidebar to help support my website.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/biotix/feed/436543PRESS RELEASE: “12 Realms: Dungeonland” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-12-realms-dungeonland-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-12-realms-dungeonland-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondMon, 15 May 2017 15:22:07 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36514The latest iteration of “12 Realms” by Mage Company proves that the series is still alive and kicking. “12 Realms: Dungeonland” is a stand-alone game that retains the previous games’ theme, what with the inclusion of characters like Little Red Riding Hood and Prince Charming. In this version however, there’s a heavier focus on RPG mechanics…that is, the ability to level up your characters and upgrade their abilities using a skills tree. A new A.I. system is also featured that allows bosses to react a certain way depending on the situation. “12 Realms: Dungeonland” is set to seek funding through the Kickstarter process May 15, 2017.

Assistant Manager Helena Tzioti from Mage Company offered the following:

“The standalone game 12 Realms: Dungeonland expands the fairytale world with a dungeon-crawling game by Twisted Brothers in which powerful magic has mutated the lands of the 12 realms, invading their tales and attempting to change them forever.

Evil spreads everywhere, twisting and mixing the tales in sinister stories where the ending is never good. Horrific villains have come back for their revenge on the heroes of the tales, this time more dangerous than ever. The source of this magic is unknown, yet whispers of an ancient evil spread through the lands. The once green fields and lush forests are now dark and dead as nothing grows anymore and all the beauty of the realms is gone. With more tales being affected by the dark magic every day the heroes of the tales combine their powers to save the 12 realms and banish this evil once and for all.

In the game, the players take on the roles of famous folklore characters like Little Riding Hood and Prince Charming, each with a unique ability, then attempt to travel across the tales to stop the great villains that have returned by dark magic to change their endings to bad ones and cast the realms into eternal darkness. In their quest to fight this great evil, the heroes face great challenges, but they will have at their disposal powerful weapons, skills, and ancient magic. They will travel across many tales gathering clues about the source of this mysterious evil, while fighting for their lives using a unique combat system that features a set of completely custom dice. Through their adventures, the heroes will gather experience, hone their skills or acquire new ones using an innovative skill-tree system offering tons of customization and options, collect gold, and find powerful artifacts to aid them against the foul magic that has spread through the lands.

The heroes will face strong villains and their minions with a new A.I. system that allows the bosses to react to certain circumstances while utilizing amazing abilities that will challenge the heroes’ might and resourcefulness. The battle for the 12 realms has just begun, yet time grows short as more and more tales are being corrupted by this foul magic. Will the heroes be able to find and stop the source behind it before it’s too late, or will the tales be lost forever into twisted evil versions of themselves?”

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-12-realms-dungeonland-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036514PRESS RELEASE: “Wanted Earth” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-wanted-earth-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-wanted-earth-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondMon, 15 May 2017 09:41:54 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36525When you’re playing a tabletop game with some sort of catastrophic theme, you’re either on one side or the other. For example, in “Pandemic”, you’re always fighting for humanity against four deadly diseases. “Castle Panic” has you fighting against orcs and trolls every single time. “Wanted Earth” however lets players be either the humans or the invading aliens, which is a neat twist. In short, it’s a miniatures game that pits the human heroes against an invading alien force called the Goigons, though the Kickstarter page hints that more may be available via stretch goals.

Eddie Zakoor from Shadow Squirrel Games offered the following:

“From the beginning Earth has remained unnoticed…until now. Various alien races desire Earth for their own reasons and will do anything necessary to dominate the planet and its inhabitants. For the first time in history; humans have a common enemy. Are you ready?

Wanted Earth is an epic miniatures strategy board game for 1-7 players that can be played in 60-120 minutes. Fight as the heroes defending the planet or try to conquer Earth as an invading alien race.

Enjoy an action-packed gaming experience without all the confusing rules, millions of tiny pieces, or long and tedious setup.

Every game will be a different experience. Discover unique abilities and play styles with each hero, hero combination, and alien factions that you will play.

As you immerse yourself in the Wanted Earth universe, you will discover out-of-this-world artwork, stunning miniatures, and powerful character abilities.

Will you be the one who defends Earth? Or will you be the one to destroy it?”

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-wanted-earth-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036525Magicka Mayhemhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/magicka-mayhem/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/magicka-mayhem/#respondSat, 13 May 2017 23:21:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36506Most of you video gamers out there know about “Magicka”, a top-down action-adventure game that lets you combine elements to cast spells. What makes the game so great is that the combinations are almost endless…just check out the game’s Wiki and you’ll see what I mean. “Magicka Mayhem” takes that sometimes hilariously frustrating mish-mash of spells and condenses it into a relatively easy-to-play card game. Players will be able to use element cards in conjunction with spell cards with the intent on reducing their opponent’s life force to zero like in “Star Realms” or Magic: The Gathering”. Special thanks to Game Creators Ken and Ethan Erickson for sending me a copy of the game for press coverage purposes.

Due to medical reasons I opted to link a wonderful “how-to-play” video done by the makers of the game below as opposed to typing out the rules by hand. There are four videos in all, so make sure you watch all of them!

All in all, I did feel that the card game did indeed capture the theme of the video game quite well. The art in particular was very well done. While I found it odd that the cards were in a box that were then inside a stronger box, I appreciated the extra effort made to keep cards secure. Part of me wonders though why they didn’t just opt for the strong box and include a middle box insert. The inside box fits the cards fine, but there’s no separator to prevent the top/bottom cards from sliding into the other pile. I’m just OCD about that kind of thing.

The game includes a few different modes of play: one for beginners and one for advanced players that introduces counter-spells and the like. In either game mode, players can opt to draw a mayhem card on every spell cast (as opposed to only doing so when rolling a 1 on a six-sided die) if they want more unpredictable levels of crazy to be added to their game. While not mentioned in the rule book, you can do away with the mayhem cards altogether to reduce the amount of randomness to the game. Those who know me understand my position on this…it’s your game, play how you like.

While I admittedly found the video game frustrating at times (my old fingers and poor memorization skills contributed to this), I did find the card game to be a great way to summon your inner wizard and cast spells with even the most casual of gamers. I actually had time to think about chaining spells to do some extra damage, which this game also offers. Targets can become frozen or wet for example, making them vulnerable to certain elemental types. In summary, this game allows you to be a bit more strategic in your spell-play (since you’re not playing in real-time like in the video game) and for that, it deserves a permanent place on my gaming shelf.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/magicka-mayhem/feed/036506Inspiration (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/inspiration-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/inspiration-preview/#respondFri, 12 May 2017 15:13:20 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36485Sometimes the best games are those that involve the use of one’s own imagination. If you don’t believe me, give Dungeons & Dragons a spin with an experienced Game Master. Even if RPGs like that aren’t your thing, rest assured that there is a huge market for that kind of thing. The goal of “Inspiration”, a card game that’ll be seeking funding on Kickstarter around May 12, 2017, tasks players with using their imagination to tell the best story based on the available art cards. Special thanks to Project Lead Owen Camber for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see here (including the rules) subject to change.

“Inspiration” supports 3-6 players, though you could play with two or even fly solo if you don’t mind modifying the rules. The components included in my prototype copy were: 60 art cards, 32 subject cards, and 15 point tokens. The art cards and the subject cards are shuffled separately and each player draws five art cards and three subject cards. The last player to have written something down becomes the judge, with the player to the left starting the round.

Like “Apples to Apples”, players will take turns being a judge. At the start of a player’s turn (who isn’t the judge), they’ll choose two art cards from their hand and place them face-up for all to see. Once that’s done, the player to the active player’s left chooses one subject card and one art card to add to the active player’s two art cards. From there, the active player has thirty seconds to tell a story that relates to the subject and three art cards. Once complete, the cards are given to the judge to remind them as to which player told which story. Every player besides the judge will do this. The judge will also not give the active player cards.

As far as the judging process is concerned, the rules used are up to you. For example, one player might choose the best story as the one that was the funniest, while another might be a stickler and demand to know how one of the cards was used in the story. I’m personally of the opinion that if the story is both great and entertaining, not including a card “enough” wouldn’t warrant disqualification. Of course, you’re free to play as you like. The person deemed to have the best story by the judge gets a point token. The first player to three points wins the game.

As I mentioned above, it is possible to play solo or with two players with some modified rules. While not mentioned in the rulebook, you COULD play with two players if both acted as a judge and told a story every round. They’d have to be honest though and agree as to why which story is better. Flying solo also doesn’t have an official rule set, but I don’t see why you couldn’t flex your creative storytelling muscles to entertain your friends on social media. Folks who have no issues modifying or creating rules to suit their play group should have no problems doing this.

As a side note, I could also see this game being used in a school or medical setting. Some tests for autism rely on asking those being tested to tell a story based on various objects or toys in front of them, something in which I personally witnessed. Of course, some of the subjects like “revenge” or anything that might be construed as negative might want to be filtered out of the deck if used for those purposes. I guess the point I’m leading to is that “Inspiration” has more to offer here than what might be originally seen.

Pledging for the game starts around $22, which will grant you one copy of the base game. You can see all of the tiers on the game’s Kickstarter page.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/inspiration-preview/feed/036485Space Invaders Dice!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/space-invaders-dice/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/space-invaders-dice/#respondSun, 23 Apr 2017 20:04:59 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36497If you don’t know what “Space Invaders” is, then there’s a good chance I’m older than you. Much, much older. It was a game I used to play on my Atari 2600 and with my one button joystick, tried to shoot aliens out of the sky (and the occasional UFO for bonus points). “Space Invaders Dice!” recaptures the retro feel of this quote unquote “ancient” video game rather nicely and can be played so or with three other people. Special thanks Wholesale Manager Zack Krnavek from Turn One Gaming Supplies for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Due to medical issues I opted to cover the how to play part of my review with a short video. As far as a review is concerned, I will say that I rather enjoyed this title as it comes with a number of different game modes. For example, there’s a draft multiplayer where players draft dice and a solo marathon game that will test your endurance (and luck). The game is nice and compact, making it quite portable for trips. The dice are of good quality and there are plenty of sheets to use, especially if you’re a solo kinda guy/gal.

The game will be available May, 2017 and can be pre-ordered now for $16.99. I found that price to be fair for the amount of play time offered here. I can personally recommend “Space Invaders Dice!” and then some, though admittedly some of the gameplay is luck-based. Sure, you can reroll dice, but there’s a tougher penalty if you roll poorly the second time around. Don’t let the luck aspect dissuade you however, this is a game that both younger and older retro-gamers can appreciate.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/space-invaders-dice/feed/036497Hanabihttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hanabi/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hanabi/#respondSun, 23 Apr 2017 00:12:17 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36493If I were to try to make a fireworks display in real life, I’d probably set a house on fire or at the very least, singe my eyebrows off permanently. “Hanabi” is all about making a fireworks display cooperatively with other players though the kicker is, you can’t look at your own cards. This poses a problem, as cards must be played in numeric order by suit. Personally I think “Hanabi” is an excellent team-building game that requires both memorization and critical thinking skills. While some might consider open discussion against the rules, it can actually promote some good communication/team-building skills as well.

Due to medical issues and time, I’ll simply opt to leave my first impressions gameplay video below. I can easily recommend it though as it’s both cheap and has a lot of replay value. Search the Amazon sidebar for the game so that if you do buy it, I’ll get a small commission at no cost to you.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hanabi/feed/036493Hardback (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hardback-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hardback-preview/#respondTue, 04 Apr 2017 17:28:31 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36460I liked “Paperback” (by Timothy Fowers from Fowers Games) so much that I gave it a 9/10, observing that it “combines the ideas of spelling words for points and deck building rather nicely”. I also enjoyed my time with “Word Domination” (by Jeff Beck from Uproarious Games), which I previewed for a Kickstarter campaign back in August of 2016. Back then, I claimed that it was “truly a step up from the word games in my collection” and I maintain that praise. Enter “Hardback”, a game that both gentlemen are working on that is similar to the aforementioned “Paperback” in a number of ways (which is a good thing). “Hardback” will be seeking funding through the Kickstarter process starting April 4th, 2017. As such, the game copy I received was a prototype and thus, everything seen here (including the rules) are subject to change.

Like “Paperback”, “Hardback” is a deck-builder with a focus on the alphabet and English language. “Paperback” tasked players with creating words with letter cards, some of which had special abilities that I found to be really neat. “Hardback” is similar in that you’re using letter cards and as a 19th century aspiring novelist, you’re paid per word. Jeff described the game to me as a “pre-quill” (get it kids, because quills are…oh nevermind) in theme and I certainly felt his claims to be justified. While there are obvious differences (which I’ll get to), I liked how certain letters represented different genres (adventure, romance, etc.). While cards by themselves have abilities, using two of the same genre enables an extra ability (like in “Star Realms”).

Like most deck-builders, players begin with a pre-built but small deck of cards in which to build upon. Specifically, eight one-cent cards consisting of A, E, I, L, N, R, S, and T along with two random starting prestige cards that consist of C, D, G, H, M, O, P, and U. Any unused ones go back into the box. The ink and remover cubes (black and white respectively) are placed within easy reach of all players. There are also best seller cards which you’ll want to order from 7-12. There’s more to the setup process like setting up the prestige and adverts tracker along with the need to form a starting pool of purchasable cards but I’ll opt to jump into gameplay to give you an idea as to what you’re getting into should you decide to support the game.

Players start with a hand of five cards from their deck. On their turn, they’ll first attempt to form a word using as many letters as possible as the entire hand will be discarded into their discard pile when they’re done. Players familiar with deck-builders know this to be standard. Anywho, any card can be played face-down so that it turns into a wild, but you won’t be able to use its ability nor will you earn money for it. If persistent cards are in play, you can build off of those as well. When using other players’ persistent cards you won’t be able to use their ability, but the cards will be forced to be discarded.

Cards provide a number of benefits, but they mainly come in coins, prestige, and abilities. Coins are used to buy new cards from the central pool on your turn to add to your discard pile at the turn’s end. The discard pile becomes the new deck once you’re out of cards to draw, so you’ll be seeing your purchases later in the game. Prestige act like victory points and the player with the most at the end of the game wins. As mentioned above, there’s a tracker for that. Abilities are either basic or genre…meaning that you can always use the card’s basic ability when played, but you only gain the benefit of the genre ability when you play another card of the same genre on the same turn to form your word.

In addition to purchasing cards, players can purchase ink tokens which are used to push your luck. Ink tokens can be spent at ANY time which allow you to draw one card face-up in front of you. The ink token used to draw a card is placed on the card as a reminder. On your next turn, you MUST use ALL the cards in front of you with an ink token, hence the push your luck mechanic. Ink tokens are the only way to get additional cards on your turn to form longer words and you may want to in order to claim those best seller card bonuses. If you form a word using a number of letters that matches the top best seller card (starts with 7), you get to claim it. Ink remover tokens remove ink tokens, allowing you to add the card to your hand.

The first player to sixty prestige wins. It’s important to note that I didn’t cover all of the rules in the prototype manual. For example, you can buy adverts (on the tracker) to gain prestige points. Hopefully though this overview will give you a brief taste with which to whet your appetite. My knowledge of “Star Realms” served me well here, as I choose to specialize in one or sometimes two genres to increase the chances of two cards of the same genre being drawn from my deck every turn. Of course, you’re free to collect whatever letter cards you want…this game is all about making those tough decisions. “Do I collect this unpopular letter to build upon the genre I’m going for, or do I take this other letter that can be used in a lot more words?” I found myself asking that question a lot.

As deck-builders go, this one was incredibly fun. Word games are beneficial already for their educational value…but seriously, anyone can get behind this one even if you aren’t the world’s best speller. I found it to be a great mish-mash of different genres and felt that the deck-building, word spelling, and push-your-luck mechanics worked well together. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one and can’t wait to see what the final product looks like.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hardback-preview/feed/036460Brace For Impact! (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brace-for-impact-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brace-for-impact-preview/#respondFri, 31 Mar 2017 10:58:00 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36378Fancy yourself a submarine captain but don’t feel like spending hours playing cat and mouse against an enemy sub? “Brace For Impact!”, a 2 player game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter in March of 2017, may be what you’re looking for. It supports ages 12 and up and has an average play time of 5 minutes, making it very quick and easy to play. It also comes in a small tin case, making it very portable. Special thanks to Chris Rossetti from Rampage Games LLC for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the finished product, making everything you’re about to see and read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

The idea of “Brace For Impact!” is to kill all of the enemy crew OR gain five intelligence games to win the game. This is done by rolling dice (specifically a seven or doubles) and taking actions. There are no player turns, so the quicker you are at rolling and taking actions, the better off you’ll be. Players start with three crew meeples, one unloaded torpedo, and two dice of their color along with a double-sided chit to where the “surface” side is face-up. The extra meeples and eight intelligence gems are placed between the players.

As mentioned previously, rolling a seven or doubles allows you to take actions. The actions you can take depend on whether or not you’re on the surface or underwater as indicated by your player chit.

Rolling Doubles: Load a torpedo (place your colored torpedo onto your chit) OR remove one intelligence token from the enemy, placing back into the center of the table.

Underwater

Rolling a Seven: Surface (flip your chit to the surface side) OR take 1 intelligence gem from the center of the table.

Rolling Doubles: Load a torpedo OR fire a torpedo, forcing your opponent to lose a crew member and place it back into the central pool.

Play continues until one player wins by killing all of the enemy crew or by getting five intelligence tokens.

It’s a very simple game so this preview won’t be very long, but I think it’ll serve as a great filler for two-player game nights where both players need a break from longer play sessions. The game fits right in your pocket or purse, so you can easily bring it with you and have at it assuming it’s appropriate to do so…funerals, for example, may not be the appropriate place to pretend that you’re launching torpedoes and sinking enemy submarines. Call me crazy, but I believe some might frown upon that kinda thing.

To give you a better idea of what everything looks like, I compiled a video to go along with this written preview. Hopefully it’ll give you the visual representation you’ll need to make a decision either way. “Brace For Impact!” is not in-depth by any means, but sometimes when you’re having a brain-fart kinda day, simple games are probably for the best. For casual players and/or people who simply don’t like being rushed, I recommend adjusting the rules to make the dice rolling turn-based as opposed to real-time. In fact I recommend doing this for your first game just so you get a feel of how the dice rolls work.

As a side note, Rampage Games are the same folks who brought you “Iron Horses” and “Elements“, both of which I really enjoyed playing. I recommend checking them out after you’re done backing or at least perusing this compact yet riveting submarine battler. Pledging $13 or more will grant you a copy, though you can check out more support levels via the link below for some extra cool stuff.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brace-for-impact-preview/feed/036378PRESS RELEASE: “Bargain Quest” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-bargain-quest-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-bargain-quest-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondWed, 29 Mar 2017 18:48:05 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36444Ever since I was little, I enjoyed playing simulators that had me manage a business of some sort. Of course, there wasn’t a whole lot around of those types of games back then, but “Lemonade Tycoon” and a few others come to mind. Perhaps I enjoy the genre because I can drive a business into the ground as badly as I want to without losing any actual money. “Bargain Quest”, a game that’s on Kickstarter presently, has players running their very own item shop. Like most real life retail stores, you’ll have a display window where you can place items but they can’t be sold. It’s an interesting concept to see in a tabletop game to say the least.

Game Creator Jonathan Ying offered the following press release:

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Bargain Quest

A new game from the designer of Doom: The Board Game, Game of Thrones Trivia, and Star Wars: Imperial Assault!

A new twist on the classic adventuring formula pits the players against each other as rival item shop owners vying for the patronage of wealthy heroes. Bargain Quest is an excellent opener with easy to learn rules and fast and engaging interactions, the game is a delight for both newcomers and veteran players alike! The game will be out this fall, but eager fans and early adopters can get discounted copies and a deluxe edition that won’t be available at retail over on the team’s Kickstarter.

About the Game: Bargain Quest is a 2-4 player competitive board game where each player will run an item shop. Players will draft hands of item cards to stock their shelves and then place some of those items in their shop windows to draw in heroes. However, items in a player’s window are for display only and can’t be sold! creating a unique risk vs. reward puzzle of which items to show-off and which items to keep in stock!

As the heroes face off against the monster in a life or death battle, the shopkeepers will be out hiring new and unique employees or upgrading their facilities. Are you a shrewd merchant or a tricky swindler? Find out for yourself in Bargain Quest!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-bargain-quest-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036444Takhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tak/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tak/#respondSat, 25 Mar 2017 21:38:06 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36439I love abstract games, but Tak grabbed my attention in ways I wasn’t expecting. Like “Chess”, you’ll often be thinking moves ahead in order to get a leg up on your opponent to win the game. Unlike “Chess”, there are only a few pieces…but don’t let that fool you. This game is jam-packed with strategy in the way the pieces behave, stack, and move. Your main goal is to form a road from one side of the board to the other. The stacks can be uneven so as long as you control the stack (your piece is on top). Doing this is easier said than done, however. Special thanks to the folks at Cheapass Games for providing me with a press copy for coverage purposes.

Speaking of coverage, I opted to focus my efforts on a video since the game is a visual one. It’s easier to see the potential strategies when you’re watching someone play the game. As far as a review goes, I’ll simply say that the pieces and board were beautiful and well crafted. You already know my thoughts about it in terms of gameplay, but it certainly has a unique charm about it that makes me want to revisit the game in the future sooner than usual. My only complaint was the lack of baggies…the bags the pieces came in were the tear open and throw away kind. Zip baggies would have been better, in my opinion. Check out my video below for more content and thoughts on this beautiful game.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tak/feed/036439Hoardhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hoard-2/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hoard-2/#respondTue, 21 Mar 2017 09:55:11 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36305“Hoard” is a rummy style game with a dragon theme with a little bit of memorization thrown in for good measure. Odd combinations, I know, but it works. The whole idea of the game is to gather sets of cards without waking the dragon as doing so ends the round…though you may want to if you’re ahead of the others on points. Special thanks to Julia Schiller from Cheeky Parrot Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Hoard: 2-6 Players, Ages 6+, Average Play Time = 10 Minutes Per Round

Setting up the game proved to be easy and is a simple matter of placing the three dragon tiles blue side up (representing the sleeping side) and surrounding them with cards from the main shuffled deck. Most of these cards represent a color like in “Ticket to Ride”…that is, green, red, and so on. There are also cards that wake up the dragon (eeek!) and put it to sleep (shhh!) which flip one of the three dragon tiles in the middle of the table appropriately when played. Swords let you steal cards from your opponent while shields are defensive in nature to stop such an action…a set of which is worth some points. There are three purple cards which can be used when you have three players or more that add different effects/rules to the game. Players start with five cards and receive a cardboard figure on a stand to place on one of the cards surrounding the dragon tiles.

On your turn you can choose one of four actions:

1. Roll & Move – The active player rolls a six-sided die (numbered 1-5 and an Esmeralda symbol that acts as a wild) and moves in any direction. They then look at the card they landed on in secret and decide whether or not to keep it. If you do so, you replace it with a card from either the deck or your hand. If you do the former, you may look at it before placing it face-down.

2. Lay down three or more cards of the same color to start a new set or add to an existing set.

3. Play a dragon action card and flip one of its tiles. Having three (no more or less) in front of you at the end of the game scores you points too.

4. Play a sword, shield, or cloak (the latter of which is one of the special purple cards).

Play continues until the dragon wakes up at which point players tally the points from their sets. The player with the most earns a token and the first to five wins (though you can adjust that number if you so choose or simply just play one game). Keep in mind I did NOT cover all of the rules found in the manual…this was a brief overview to give you an idea as to how the game is played. I also included a video of Vinnie Jr. and I playing our first game below so you can see more of the game in action.

What did I think? In all honesty, I found this to be a neat little filler game that combines a few different mechanics rather well. You’ve got hand management, set collecting, time-management (strategically waking or putting the dragon to sleep) and a little bit of back-stabbing (swords, etc.). My copy came with a die that was incorrect…it had values 2-6 when it should have been 1-5 though this wasn’t a deal-breaker. I’m used to winging it and I simply treated the six as a one. The developer was very active in getting this issue resolved with the manufacturer, a testament to the intended quality of the game.

The box insert functioned well as did the box itself which folders over like a book with magnets to keep it shut. The components are colorful and the rules were fairly simple to grasp. I can see this appealing to a wide audience…causal gamers may do well to leave out the special purple cards and concentrate on the set collection and memorization. Speaking of the latter, the memorization aspect kept me on my toes throughout the game as I had to remember what I was putting down where as I was moving my character around the grid. This reminded me of the two player game “Dracula” a bit, for those of you who have dabbled in that.

All in all, “Hoard” is a keeper. It’s flexible enough to be played once or many times, whatever you prefer. As mentioned earlier, it’s best as a filler in between longer play sessions though it can serve as the main attraction on a school night where time is limited.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hoard-2/feed/036305Mole Rats in Spacehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/mole-rats-in-space/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/mole-rats-in-space/#respondTue, 14 Mar 2017 01:40:05 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36429It seems we’ve been playing a lot of cooperative games lately, and that’s a good thing. It promotes teamwork and instills a sense of comradery instead of competition and sometimes hostility. The cooperative game “Mole Rats in Space” for 2-4 players, despite its kid-themed feel, is much more difficult than we first expected. It’s like a cross between “Chutes and Ladders” and “Forbidden Island”, in my opinion. Kids will easily be able to grasp the mechanics, but I highly recommend a few variants to help lower the difficulty. You can check my suggested variants out in my video play-through below. Special thanks to Kelley DeVincentis from Southard Freeman Communications for providing me with a press copy so that I could cover it here and on my YouTube channel.

Since I chose to record a gameplay video and include my thoughts there, I’ll simply opt to give you a short review here so that I’m not repeating myself. As mentioned above, “Mole Rats in Space” is deceptively difficult and could use a few variant rules to make the game a bit more kid/casual friendly. The components are simply “OK”, they didn’t stand out in any particular way. The board did look nice though and the rules were very easy to grasp…the manual is only four pages or so. The game includes a couple of challenge cards and a new lose condition should you find the default game too easy…we didn’t. Make no mistake, we loved playing this game just like we did “Pandemic” and “Forbidden Island”. I do recommend it to gamer families who enjoy a challenge but like I said, include a few variant rules to make your experience better if you deem it necessary.

It’s on Amazon for $19.99, so go check it out using my game finder on the right sidebar to help support our site. Or you can check it out on the official website.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/mole-rats-in-space/feed/036429PRESS RELEASE: “Castle Dukes” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-castle-dukes-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-castle-dukes-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondTue, 07 Mar 2017 18:29:07 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36422Games like “Rampage” are notoriously fun for when you want to break things and tear down a city, but what if a game came along that let you purchase rooms and structures in order to build 3D castles? It just so happens that you can in “Castle Dukes”, a game that’s currently on Kickstarter right now, and has already reached 30% of its funding goal as of the date of this posting. It supports 1-4 players and is for ages 12+ with an average play time of 60 minutes.

Dominic Michael H from Medieval Lords offered the following:

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Your hands tremble as you cautiously place a Pillar between your castle levels. While a high risk manoeuvre, this will greatly stabilize your castle in the long run. Two travelling Princesses had already passed your fortress up in favor of other more fluffy castles, and a Knight had chosen to stake out for the great Dragon in a neighboring fortress that he had assumed to be ‘better equipped’ than yours to take on the legendary creature. His loss.

You did bag the majestic presence of a royal King though, with your thick walls that would impress even the most grumpy of stone masons. Alas, these very same walls have been shaking in the recent months with every slight tremor in the earth, and heavy stonework you lay over this cold stronghold you call home. No matter – this Pillar is the key to making everything right again. A trickle of sweat enters your eye, the salt burning your eyeball and forcing that inevitable blink. *BAP* Your fingers push the Pillar ever so subtly into the upper ceiling of your 4th storey, and suddenly everything crumbles down around you in the hair breadth of a second. Your eyes widen in dismay as you watch on helplessly, and your lips harden into a thin line as you resign to your ill fate. The levels and Pillars cave in on themselves, destroying the beautiful rooms you so carefully planned through the years.

Welcome to the world of Castle Dukes, a game with an exciting amalgamation of dexterity and strategy. Smart purchasing decisions will be needed to beat your rivals in gaining the favor of nobles passing through the land, and clever room and structure placement will determine the difficulty of your path. A little sleight of hand would come in rather handy in this game too!

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-castle-dukes-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036422Magic Mazehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/magic-maze/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/magic-maze/#respondThu, 02 Mar 2017 03:12:35 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36418Cooperative games like “Pandemic” are fantastic in that players get to work together toward a common goal. Unfortunately, some cooperative games are as tough as nails and take a while to play. “Magic Maze” is not only easy to learn, but takes very little time to play. In short, players will be moving four heroes around using actions, actions that only one player has access to. One player may only be able to move a character left while another can make use of the game’s portal / fast travel system. The goal is to coordinate all four characters onto their colored shop space so they can simultaneously steal their item. Once they do, they’ll all head for the exit. Did I mention this was all timed and normally, you can’t speak to the other players?

I decided to record a quick gameplay video in order to better explain how the mechanics work. The components are top-notch and the instruction manual comes with many scenarios to try out. I highly recommend that new players start with the first introductory scenario as you can talk to each other freely. We did so in the video below. As cooperative games go, “Magic Maze” is pretty darned good as it’ll force you to pay attention to what other people are doing as they may be waiting for YOU to take your action so that they can follow-up with theirs. All in all, this one is definitely a recommend. Special thanks to the folks at Sit Down! Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/magic-maze/feed/036418PRESS RELEASE: “Jack the Ripper” Now Available For Purchasehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-jack-the-ripper-now-available-for-purchase/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-jack-the-ripper-now-available-for-purchase/#respondWed, 01 Mar 2017 03:09:02 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36408“Jack the Ripper”, a primer game similar to “Werewolf” and “Mafia” takes less than fifteen minutes to play, blew past its Kickstarter goal back in August of 2016. Now the game is retailing and available for all you lovers of deception and cunning. For example, you can find the core game on Amazon for about $20.00, though you can get the full set for $30.00. If Amazon isn’t you’re thing, head on over to the game’s official website and buy it through PayPal.

The folks at Crypt Monkey Studios, LLC offered the following press release:

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Jack the Ripper

A Social Deduction Primer Game with 2-15 Minute Playtimes

February 28, 2017 – St. Louis, MO – Crypt Monkey Studios, LLC has announced the release of Jack the Ripper, an easy to learn, quick playing filler-primer game that puts players in the shoes of one of four scavenger hunters or the Whitechapel Murderer himself, Jack the Ripper.

The year is 1888 and the city of London is terrorized by a menace the likes of which the world has not seen before. In an effort to keep spirits high and not allow this murderer to rule the day, you and your friends defiantly go on with an annual scavenger hunt. The night is a success and as members of your team find the last item on your scavenger hunt list, it seems nothing can go wrong. That’s just about the time you realize that someone in your group is the notorious Jack the Ripper. But which of you is it?

As you find that you have become trapped, you creep through the dark searching for a means to defend yourself. One by one, the items from your scavenger hunt reveal themselves to become the weapons of your salvation. But the question remains, who is friend and who is foe?

“Thanks so much CMS, we absolutely love the fast mechanics, the slick and creepy look and the devious play style of JtR, and I’m absolutely glad I backed!” – underAtack, Kickstarter Backer

Game night! It’s the one night of the week we all look forward to. You pack up your dice, pencils, cards, and snacks and then head over to your game host’s house ready and eager to storm the castle. Once you arrive, you and your friends stare at each other while you wait for that one Mr. or Mrs. Late that every gaming group has. Well you don’t have to watch cat videos while you wait, Jack the Ripper was designed to fill this slot in your game night. Jack the Ripper is a simple, fast paced, social deduction game crafted to start game night off right. Learn more about Jack the Ripper at https://cryptmonkeygames.com/games/jacktheripper.

“Just got done playing this game, and if I never play it again, I still will have gotten twice my money’s worth. It was fantastic.” – Lex Pergerson, Kickstarter Backer

Crypt Monkey Studios, LLC is an independent tabletop game publisher that forges unique games embedded with dark and compelling stories. For more information, visit us at https://cryptmonkeygames.com.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-jack-the-ripper-now-available-for-purchase/feed/036408Clear for Takeoffhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/clear-for-takeoff/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/clear-for-takeoff/#respondSat, 25 Feb 2017 19:18:02 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36403“Clear for Takeoff” tells you almost everything you’ll need to know about this game right out of the gate…pardon the pun. Players will be tasked with getting all three of the planes to take off and the first who does so wins the game. Each player will receive three planes (small, medium, large) and will need to use action cards to move them from the hangar and down the runaway. The larger the plane, the more cards you’ll have to play to move it. Of course, taking off requires that the weather cooperates. Special thanks to the folks at Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Once again I opted to do a video illustration showing off the components and gameplay, so check it out below. Overall “Clear for Takeoff” isn’t a bad little game…very easy to play and the components are sound. There are some strategic choices to be had but a lot of it requires you to draw the right cards at the right time. This is an easy recommend for gamer families though hardcore gamers may find the strategy to be a bit lacking. It supports up to four players and plays in about a half hour, so it’s an easy activity to utilize with kids looking for something to do.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/clear-for-takeoff/feed/036403Kingdominohttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/kingdomino/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/kingdomino/#respondSat, 25 Feb 2017 00:17:49 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36397Enjoy tile-laying games like “Alhambra” but don’t have a lot of time on your hands? “Kingdomino” is probably what you’re looking for and it’s family friendlier to boot. It supports 2-4 players & ages 8+ with an average play time of about 15 minutes. Essentially, players are trying to create a 5×5 grid and score the most points based on the size of their territories multiplied by the number of crowns that are on said territories. Turn order is determined by which tiles player choose in the future which is a neat feature that much-needed strategic element to a game like this. Special thanks to Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

The video illustration below goes over the components and the rules in greater detail so I’ll simply opt to give you the highlights: It’s fast, it’s fun, and it’s family-friendly. I don’t run into a lot of tile-drafting / tile-laying games that play this quickly so “Kingdomino” is great to have on standby as a filler or if you’re simply not in the mood for meatier games. Some of the components (the castles) require assembly but it took all of five minutes and wasn’t difficult (and I’m the least handy gamer there is, hands-down). “Kingdomino” is quite simply a blast to play making it an easy recommend from a dad’s point of view. If this game looks interesting enough to buy, use the Amazon search bar to the right to find and purchase the game so that you can support your favorite…okay…one of your favorite gamer dads. You can also find more of Blue Orange Games here.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/kingdomino/feed/036397Unlocked: The Mansion of Mana (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/unlocked-the-mansion-of-mana-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/unlocked-the-mansion-of-mana-preview/#respondFri, 24 Feb 2017 22:35:23 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35911“Unlocked: The Mansion of Mana’s” setting feels like it was heavily inspired by “Clue” and other similar murder mysteries in that you and other strangers arrive at an old Victorian mansion complete with separate invitations. Only here, you’re competing (as kids) to become Uncle Alfie’s apprentice by helping him get out of a plane of existence that he was caught in during his research of interplanar travel. Put simply, you’ll be unlocking rooms via ancient runic stones and the firs player to make it through the mansion will become his apprentice and win the game. Special thanks to Sean Howard from Good Knight Games for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything featured here (included the rules) subject to change.

Game setup will vary slightly depending on the number of players. For example, in a two or three player game, some of the key cards will be removed from the deck before being randomly dealt face-up in the specified layout as shown in the manual. This tableau of cards forms the mansion in which players will be attempting to get through. Next, players set up the river by dealing a number of runes cards face-up equal to the number of player plus one. Each player also starts with four rune cards, dealt face-down to each player, to form their starting hand. They also choose a color and get the set of tokens of their color along with a player aid card. The starting player is determined via a mini-game called “A Wizard’s Duel” which is a little like rock-paper-scissors…sort of. Of course, you could skip that and just choose one randomly.

A player’s turn is divided into four phases:

1. Activate Keys – As players place their tokens on keys (explained later), they’ll have access to special abilities. Some key effects can be reused (marked with a recycle icon). At the beginning of this phase, your tokens on reusable cards are moved to the ready position. After that, you can use a key’s effect by moving your token from the ready space to the exhausted space. Other keys let you break other cards by moving ALL tokens on another card from the exhausted space to the broken space. All future tokens added to that card are added to the broken space. Some keys have a locked state in which, when used in conjunction with a Corazon key, locks a single opponent’s token and prevents them from building another key until the acquire the proper runes.

2. Draw Rune Cards – The player may draw three rune cards from the face down deck OR two cards from any combination of the river, deck, or top of the discard pile.

3. Play Rune Cards & Special Cards – The player plays runes from their hand to the table in front of them in order to build any key. Players need not finish a key, however they are restricted to having two unfinished keys in front of them. Multiple players can claim the same key and the same player can claim a key multiple times to use the card’s effect multiple times. Wild runes can be used to complete key sets and using all the same color elements to complete a key grants a special bonus. Runes MUST be laid down in their proper sequence as dictated on the key card. Completed sets allow the player to add a token to the ready position of the card and the used runes are discarded. The icons on the lower right of the key card show the activation times.

4. Meditate – Discard down to four cards plus any hand limit key effects. Runes played in front of you do not count toward your hand limit. After that, the river is refilled by sliding all cards to the left and refilling blank spaces from the deck. If none were taken from the river, the left most card is discarded, cards slide left, and a new card is drawn.

Turns continue until one player creates a path of tokens from the left side of the mansion to the right…that is, having at least one token in each column. The person who did so wins the game! I didn’t cover all the rules found in the manual, but this should give you the general idea. For example, I didn’t cover the four special cards in the game like “swap” and “steal a card”, which adds a bit of strategic randomness to the game. There are also unique goals that will actually change the victory condition. For example, the vampire key turns you into a vampire and your new goal is to share a key location with each player in the game…if successful, you win!

There’s also a single player variant that uses the layout listed in the five player game. This solo variant introduces a new “guardians” phase in which tokens that are not your color act as guardians blocking a player from procuring keys. There’s a three-four page rules primer on this so I’ll opt to let you discover this on your own, but your ultimate goal is to have as many cards left in the rune deck as possible.

“Unlocked: The Mansion of Mana” advertises itself as a big game in a small box and I completely agree with that statement. While the number of components you get with this game are pretty few, the choices you’ll have to make when it comes to which keys you’re going to go after will keep your brain busy. There’s very little randomness from the act of drawing cards, which I really like. Players can risk drawing an extra card by drawing three cards blindly from the deck OR taking runes they need to complete sets from the face-up river / discard pile. The special abilities take a little getting used to, especially since the cards are randomized at setup with every game you play. I found these abilities to be the true hurdle in “getting good” at the game as chaining abilities and locking others out of ones your foresee being issues is where the real strategy of the game lies.

“Unlocked: The Mansion of Mana” is both fun and addicting…you’d do well to check it out.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/unlocked-the-mansion-of-mana-preview/feed/035911Zerohttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/zero/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/zero/#respondThu, 23 Feb 2017 19:33:25 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36389“Zero” has been around for a while (1998-ish?) and has gone through several printings. This particular printing by Blue Orange Games (designed by Reiner Knizia) draws a lot of similarities to “UNO” in the sense that you’re trying to score zero points. Instead of getting rid of all of the cards in your hand however, you’ll always maintain your hand size of nine. Your ultimate goal is to get five cards of the same color and five cards of the same number by swapping cards from a public pool. Special thanks to the folks at Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Due to the game’s colorful nature, I opted to do a quick video outlining gameplay and my thoughts. The game is estimated to be released in Q2 of 2017 and is pretty fun to play, so be on the look out for it soon! In the meantime, go check out other Blue Orange Games as I rarely come across a game from them that I didn’t like. In this case, the components were sound, the cards colorful, and the rules easy to understand making it an easy pick for family game night.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/zero/feed/036389Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/truck-off-the-food-truck-frenzy-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/truck-off-the-food-truck-frenzy-preview/#respondWed, 01 Feb 2017 17:26:38 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36326I didn’t realize how cut-throat the food truck business actually was until I laid my hands on this game. “Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy”, a game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter in February 2017, is designed for 2-6 players and takes about 30 minutes to play. While the goal of earning the most money at the end of the game might sound simple, you’re going to be going up against competitors (other players) looking to seize the opportunities before them and put you out of business. I’d like to thank Adam Rehberg from Adam’s Apple Games, LLC for providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about in this article (including the rules) subject to change.

Note: There is a two-player variant listed on the back of the rulebook that changes the way you’d normally play. To keep the preview moving, I’ll opt to cover the standard 3-6 player rule-set.

To set up the game, players place location cards and corresponding dice on the table in ascending order within accordance to the player count. There’s a grid in the rulebook for specifics on that. Each player receives their color coordinated action cards and matching truck tokens (each of which match locations on the table). Players can either use money tokens for scoring or a pencil & paper, whichever they are more comfortable with.

The game itself plays over five rounds. The player to have last eaten from a food truck goes first and receives the first player token.

During a round:

1. Each player secretly selects two token trucks. When finished, everyone reveals their trucks simultaneously and places them next to corresponding location cards.

2. Players roll each location die, the values of which represent the payout at that location.

3. Next, players simultaneously select any number of action cards they want to play this round and add them to their hand.

4. Beginning with the starting player, players execute actions (one at a time going clockwise).

5. All active trucks at each location earn money equal to the number of customers split equally by the number of trucks present.

After five rounds, whoever has the most money is the winner, with ties being broken via dice rolling. Keep in mind that I didn’t cover all of the rules found in the prototype manual, but the above should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

“Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy” is fairly simple and family-friendly as games go. It’s like a more simplified version of “Lemonade Tycoon”…that is, without the need to buy stock and set prices. Here, you’re picking locations and hoping that a LOT of customers show up at said locations. While a lot of this sounds like luck (and it is), you do have some pull with your action cards.

The reroll action, for example, can help bring customers to a location you’re at or if you feel the location to be a lost cause, you can move an active truck entirely to a different site. If you don’t want the competition on a busy location, you can move one of your opponent’s truck’s elsewhere. If you’re sure your truck is going to rake in a ton of profits, try the X2 card to double your score after the split. A 3rd truck can be helpful in a pinch should one of your others be stuck somewhere not all that appealing. Or, if you want to be really mean, you can shut down an active truck or a site completely.

If you’re part of a casual gamer family like me, then by all means give “Truck Off – The Food Truck Frenzy” a look.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/truck-off-the-food-truck-frenzy-preview/feed/036326Top Ten Two-Player Board Gameshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/top-ten-two-player-board-games/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/top-ten-two-player-board-games/#respondSat, 21 Jan 2017 04:13:44 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36341We consider ourselves a gamer-family, though there are plenty of times where only two of us are available for a game when we’d like to do something together. This, coupled with the suggestion from a friend that I make some sort of list, led me to this post.

The below is a list of my top-ten recommended two-player board games, though this list comes with a few caveats. For one, there’s no consideration to publication date. Secondly, I only listed games that I actually own. Lastly, there are PLENTY of games that work great as a two-player game but support more, however there were so many that I had to restrict my top ten list to two-player only games. I did include a few exceptions in the honorable mentions section and honestly wanted to list more than I did.

Are there better two-player games out there than the ones I listed? Probably…but again, there’s a good chance I’ve never played them (you know, because I’m human and all). The list is done in video format, so go brew some popcorn and microwave some coffee…or something…and enjoy the show! Links are provided here for your convenience, because I’m awesome that way.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/top-ten-two-player-board-games/feed/036341Elementhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/element/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/element/#respondFri, 20 Jan 2017 22:59:08 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36350At first glance I thought that “Element” would be confusing, what with the way each of the four elements behave. While there is a learning curve, all it’ll take is a couple of games to get a handle on what’s going on. Essentially, each player gets a sage piece and it’s up to you to entrap your target so that it can’t move. Doing so earns you the sweet taste of victory. Entrapping your opponent involves placing elements down around them and/or using your own piece as a roadblock for a possible venue of escape.

“Element” is simplistically deep and a wonderful strategy game, though the $34.99 price tag is a bit hefty. Then again, I’ve always been sort of a penny pincher. You’ll have to determine if the game looks to be too expensive with which to invest. To that end, check out my video review below for how the game looks and plays. I also include some final thoughts though spoiler alert, it’s all pretty darned awesome. It’ll be available in March of 2017, though I’ve been told that my copy is representative of the final product. Special thanks to Maureen McCardel, a Marketing Contractor with Kalmbach Publishing Co./Rather Dashing Games, for reaching out and providing me with a press copy.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/element/feed/036350Argle Bargle (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/argle-bargle-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/argle-bargle-preview/#respondWed, 18 Jan 2017 16:17:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36275Would you be insulted if I told you that your hat was duller than a goat? Probably not, not unless you take your hats (or your goats) very seriously. Meet “Argle Bargle”, the insult generating card game where your goal is to sap the life from your opponents through the clever use of insults. This game will be campaigning on Kickstarter in January of 2017 should you wish to get in on the fun. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Game Creator Zeke Brill for providing me with a limited edition prototype for preview purposes. While my prototype looked fantastic, it’s important to stress that they aren’t usually representative of the final product.

My copy of “Argle Bargle” came with 200 cards, 30 chits/token pieces, and a nice polyester (?) bag all packaged in a wonderful little box signed by the developer. The cards have two words/phrases each, though only one can be used when a card is played. I have to say, the prototypes I receive are usually pretty shoddy looking and the art is almost always placeholder. This game however impressed me the second I laid eyes on it. Everything was packaged wonderfully and the components both looked and felt fantastic.

To set up the game, the deck is shuffled and each player receives a hand of ten cards. They also receive five chits/tokens which act as lives. When a player runs out of lives, they are eliminated from the game. How do you eliminate a player? By insulting them with your cards, of course! On a player’s turn, they’ll take a look at the cards they have and prepare an insult if they can. Remember, you can only use one of the two words/phrases on each card. Each word/phrase on a card will have separate point values, so pay attention to that as well as you’re forming your insult.

Once you have your insult ready, you’ll choose a player and tally the points on your cards. The defender will lose a life from their pool for every five points tallied. If the active player manages to get 15 or more points on the insult, they get to steal one of the defenders life points. Once lives are lost/stolen appropriately, the active player discards the cards played and draws back up to ten. If you can’t or don’t want to play an insult on your turn, you can discard any number of cards and draw back up to ten.

Play continues until there is only one person left standing. As a house rule (listed in the manual), when there are only two people remaining and one is eliminated, the person who just got eliminated can try one last insult to take the victor down with them. I didn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but those are the highlights. For example, there are some cards in the deck that offer special bonuses when played. Reversal, for example and as you might expect, reverses the effects of another special card or after an insult has been played on you. Similarly, Redirect sends damage to another player except here, it can’t be the one who originated it. Don’t want to see your insult redirected or reversed? Boom offers the protection you’re looking for.

My family has quite an odd sense of humor and to that end, “Argle Bargle” is a big hit in my house. It’s important to consider that insults can hurt feelings, so my advice would be to coach sensitive kids that what they’re playing is just a game. The insults in this game are pretty PG rated, so parents need not worry about inappropriate language and imagery. Think “Apples to Apples” or “Say Anything” but with a more in-your-face theme. You can be as silly as you want and honestly, it’s encouraged! Being silly is what makes family games so popular in my household, because how can you have fun without a little laughter?

To that end, I highly recommend giving “Argle Bargle” a look. It’ll be launching on Kickstarter in January 2017, so mark your calendars! A $25 pledge earns you one boxed copy of the game along with a limited edition booster pack, though you can opt to spend a measly $1 for print and play PDF version.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/argle-bargle-preview/feed/036275Liar’s Dice (30th Anniversary Edition)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/liars-dice-30th-anniversary-edition/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/liars-dice-30th-anniversary-edition/#respondWed, 11 Jan 2017 10:25:03 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36315“Liar’s Dice” isn’t exactly a new game, though the 30th Anniversary Edition just rolled its way onto the market for around $20-$30 depending on where you shop. It’s bidding, bluffing, and dice-rolling all in one game and let me tell you…it’s fantastic! I opted to do my review in video form, so check out the below video to see my thoughts. If you’re looking to buy the game, check out my Amazon browser on the right sidebar. If they don’t have it there, try Miniature Market (where I purchased the game from).

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/liars-dice-30th-anniversary-edition/feed/036315PRESS RELEASE: “Goons and Gats” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-goons-and-gats-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-goons-and-gats-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondFri, 16 Dec 2016 14:23:16 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36308It’s been a while since I’ve personally seen a good Mafia-esque game. As a person of Italian decent myself, I can appreciate games themed in such a way even if I don’t go around shaking down my next door neighbors for protection money. “Goons and Gats” is looking for your help on Kickstarter right now, though you can buy it on the Gamecrafter as well if you don’t want to wait.

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Josh Wall from Wallnutz Games offered the following:

The Early 1900’s were ruled by Gangsters. The Goons with their Gats ruled the Streets. With Prohibition, the business of alcohol and guns was never better. Who will capitalize on the now illegal vices of America? Will you be the Kingpin of the Goons and Gats?

Recruit your goons by drawing cards from the goon deck, use your goons to produce ammo or alcohol. Get rid of informants or disloyal goons by feeding them to your pigs at the ole pig farm, before they rat you out. Purchase new buildings to increase your strength. Deliver your goods to the black markets or use them in your own Casino or Shipyard. Pull off heists of Vaults, Banks, Jewelry Shops, or the elusive Locomotive. Attack rival players. Be alert for the FBI or you may lose your crew. All these must be considered in order to become Kingpin of the Goons and Gats.

This is a fast paced game for 2-5 players. Generally taking anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes to play depending on the number of players.

We are raising funds to complete the first production run of this game. Our goal of $5000 will enable us to minimize the cost of production and allow us to provide our backers with an excellent game in return.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-goons-and-gats-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036308Brixhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brix/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brix/#respondFri, 09 Dec 2016 21:48:11 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36283You may not think it, but “Connect 4” can be quite a challenging game. “Brix” takes it to the next level, introducing both colors and symbols to satisfy a player’s victory condition. One player receives both a symbol (X or O) and a color (orange or blue) and if they can manage to get four in a row of either, they win. Some blocks of your color may have symbols belonging to your opponent, so it’s easy to help them out if you’re not careful. The game supports two players at ages seven and up with an average play time of ten minutes. Special thanks to the folks at Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. I opted to do my review in video form, so check out the below video to see my thoughts. If you’re looking to buy the game, check out my Amazon browser on the right sidebar.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brix/feed/036283Kaboomhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/kaboom/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/kaboom/#respondFri, 09 Dec 2016 21:43:08 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36280So, you think you’re unparalleled in the game of “Jenga“, do you? Perhaps your dexterity skills need a bit more of a challenge? Why not give “Kaboom” a spin and see how well you do building up towers for points while others try to knock them down with their catapults? Don’t fancy someone messing with your creations? That’s OKAY! In the next round, you’ll be the one firing the shots and creating destructive mayhem. It supports two to five players at ages six and up and has an average play time of about twenty minutes. Special thanks to the folks at Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. I opted to do my review in video form, so check out the below video to see my thoughts. If you’re looking to buy the game, check out my Amazon browser on the right sidebar.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/kaboom/feed/036280Pinpoint!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/pinpoint/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/pinpoint/#respondFri, 09 Dec 2016 21:40:29 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36285I used to enjoy reading the “Highlights” magazines when I was a kid, especially the “can you spot the difference between the two pictures” section. “Pinpoint!” plays along with that theme. Each card has 5 images on it…one Original image and four with variations. Players use process of elimination to locate the Original by pointing out differences in the other four pictures. It’ll challenge both kids and adults alike, guaranteed. It supports one to six players at ages seven and up with an average play time of ten minutes. Special thanks to the folks at Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. I opted to do my review in video form, so check out the below video to see my thoughts. If you’re looking to buy the game, check out my Amazon browser on the right sidebar.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/pinpoint/feed/036285U-Turnhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/u-turn/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/u-turn/#respondFri, 09 Dec 2016 21:26:14 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36288Who doesn’t like a good mind-teaser? In this two player game for ages seven to adult with an average play time of ten minutes, players will be snapping U-shaped blocks onto an ever-changing three-dimensional shape in an attempt to surround one of their colored dots to win the game. It’s not as confusing at it sounds, but it will make you scratch your head a bit as you attempt to out thwart your opponent. Special thanks to the folks at Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. I opted to do my review in video form, so check out the below video to see my thoughts. If you’re looking to buy the game, check out my Amazon browser on the right sidebar.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/u-turn/feed/036288Orbitalhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/orbital/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/orbital/#respondSat, 12 Nov 2016 17:55:11 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36260100 orbital points is all you’ll need to win this game but in reality, it’ll take you a bit of luck and brain power to get there. “Orbital”, a 2-4 player card game that’s presently being sold on The Game Crafter, has a relatively simple premise but is pretty engaging at the same time. In short, you’ll be playing orbs of different colors in front of you which you can later activate for their special abilities, though doing so will force you to discard it from play. This is key, as orbital cards, the very thing that scores you orbital points, requires orbs. Before I go any further, I want to thank Game Creator Doug Clelland for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Orbital: 2-4 Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes

The contains 66 orb cards (11 of each color), 40 orbital cards, 2 reference cards, and an instructions booklet. To set up, someone will shuffle the orb and orbital cards together to form the face-down draw deck, then dealing four cards to each player. The reference cards are placed within sight of all players as best as possible. Turns progress clockwise with the starting player chosen at random.

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Draw two cards from the main deck OR from their orbital reserve deck (I’ll get to that in a minute).

2. Play up to two orbs from their hand face-up. (Optional)

3. Activate as many orbs as they want, discarding each from play into their personal discard pile face-up. (Optional)

4. Play one orbital card from their hand by discarding the required orbs from their face-up supply into their personal reserve deck for later use (see step 1). Orbital cards go into a score pile.

Play continues until a player ends their turn with 100 or more orbital points OR until the last card is drawn from the deck. The remainder of that round is played out so that each player has an equal number of players. Whoever has the most points, wins! In case of a tie, whoever has more cards in their discard pile is the winner.

It’s important to stress that I didn’t cover everything in the rule book, but the above should give you the general idea. For example, each orb color has a different effect when discarded for their ability. Yellow lets you draw two cards while green lets you play two orbs immediately from your hand, just to rattle off a few examples. These abilities can be game changing in some ways, though it’s important to remember that saving orbs is key to being able to play orbital cards which actually score you points.

The dual use of the cards (for their abilities or as currency for an orbital) is probably the biggest strategic drawl the game has to offer. I found myself constantly looking at my hand to see how I wanted to spend my orbs. “Do I want to spend this orange so I can steal a card, or do I want to save it in case an orbital comes up that requires that color?” Luckily, you can leave orbs in front of you for as long as you’d like, though you leave them open to purple’s effect, which is to swap one of your face-up orbs with an opponent’s. At least with orange’s ability you’re somewhat safe, as it allows you to steal from an opponent’s hand at random…meaning there’s a chance they’ll grab something you don’t want anyway.

“Orbital” is simple enough for almost any gamer to enjoy, so I wouldn’t take the 12+ age requirement on the box to heart. A gifted eight or ten-year-old could probably play this game, though as a parent you’ll have to be the deciding factor as kids tend to mature at different speeds. As set collection games go, “Orbital” is fairly good. Is doesn’t do anything extraordinary to rock the boat, but this is good news for older, casual gamers who don’t feel like hitting their head off a wall trying to understand the rules of a game they just picked up.

I personally liked the abilities and the overall flow of play. The game starts off simple, though takes a turn towards the middle when you can potentially have a LOT of orbs out on the table. Once this happens, you’re left wondering what your opponent is going to do. Will they activate their orbs for their ability, or do they have an orbital card or two in their hand that they’re trying to score? Of course, players are free to try for one orbital and then switch tactics when they feel that they’ll never get the required colors quickly enough. The game is selling for $19.99, a fair price considering that most card games I see retail for a little less or more than twenty dollars.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/orbital/feed/036260PRESS RELEASE: “Feudum” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-feudum-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-feudum-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondThu, 10 Nov 2016 14:01:02 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36221While I’m all in favor of games that have an average play time of less than a half-hour, there are days where I long to sink my teeth into a game that’s both meaty and heavy. “Feudum”, an upcoming Kickstarter project, looks like it’ll fit that bill and then some. Per the Kickstarter campaign page, “Feudum mechanics include action programming, area influence, hand management and a unique economic ecosystem. The game features the kinds of strategic complexities found in deeper games such as Terra Mystica, Brass, Caylus and Dominant Species.” Like I said…meaty and heavy.

The buzz continues to grow around the Euro-style tabletop game Feudum from Odd Bird Games. The game, designed by University of Missouri Professor Mark Swanson and Mississippi-based Artist Justin Schultz, will launch on Kickstarter, Thursday, November 10.

Popular game reviewer Richard Ham of “Rahdo Runs Through” has featured Feudum on his top 10 most anticipated games list. On Feudum’s kickstarter page (www.oddbirdgames.com/feudum), Ham states in a video, “If I were ever to design a board game, this is the game I would design!”

Modern game designer Jamey Stegmaier, known for his successful Kickstarter campaign for the game Scythe, said he “had the pleasure of playing a prototype of Feudum at Geekway to the West,” and found it to be very enjoyable calling it “a heavy Euro game with lots of interesting decisions and a healthy dose of player interaction.” Stegmaier also compared it “in depth and aesthetic to Trickerion.”

Feudum features the strategic complexities found in games such as Terra Mystica, Brass, Caylus and Dominant Species, but sets itself apart with its meticulously-drawn illustrations, interesting decisions and a fully-functioning economic ecosystem. It is this unique economic mechanic that allows players to facilitate the rotation of goods through different guilds, while competing for status within them.

“There’s not one right way to play it,” said Swanson. “Uniquely powered characters and multiple paths to victory make for an ever-changing, open-world experience. You have to be flexible—ready to adapt.” The new game also includes action programming, area influence and hand management. These nuances are highlighted by Schultz’s artwork for the game.

“Designing a board game is a dream come true,” said Schultz, who is known for his eclectic works ranging from a logo for a tomato farmer to concert posters for Grammy award-winning band Wilco. “It reflects so much of what has inspired me over the years—from 60’s art like Steadman and Crumb to Anime and Saturday morning cartoons.”

The game is for 2-5 players, takes 80 to 180 minutes to play and will include rulebooks in German, French and English. Prospective backers, reviewers and retailers can have a glimpse of the game on its Kickstarter preview page at www.oddbirdgames.com/feudum.

About Odd Bird Games

Odd Bird Games launched onto the scene in 2014 with a prototype of Feudum debuting at GenCon in the First Exposure Playtest Hall. To learn more, follow Feudum on social media.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-feudum-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036221Top Ten Casual Board Games For Beginnershttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/top-ten-casual-board-games-for-beginners/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/top-ten-casual-board-games-for-beginners/#respondSun, 06 Nov 2016 23:22:45 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36250So I recently published the 2016 DGA Awards and got to thinking: “Will people just take my advice and go out and buy the games I listed without any thought to whether or not they’d be a good fit for their family?” Experienced gamers who know their way around the board, I figured, would be OK in that regard. Newcomers, on the other hand, may be a bit overwhelmed by the games I had listed should they rush out to buy them. To that end, I came up with a short list of games that I feel would be idea for beginners to play. There’s more out there, obviously, but the below should get you started.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/top-ten-casual-board-games-for-beginners/feed/0362502016 DGA Awardshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/2016-dga-awards/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/2016-dga-awards/#respondSun, 06 Nov 2016 03:44:48 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=362102016 has been the year of hell with regards to my personal well-being. I know, I know…I shouldn’t be starting articles like this on such a positive note, but I’m a rebel that way. For those of you who forget that I have a semi-updated news feed, I’ve been rather sick as of late. It all started around November/December of last year…costochondritis, GERD, hiatus hernia, a rare inflammation in the throat that makes it swell, having my wisdom teeth pulled, and a bunch of ER visits. The fun is STILL on-going, huzzah! As such I really haven’t played a lot of board games, though I have now produced over 4,000 videos on my YouTube channel. While I didn’t get to play as many tabletop games as I would have liked, I have received a number of excellent games this year that are definitely in the below list. Like last year, I’ll be listing ANY game that I own regardless of release date.

Standard disclaimers apply:

This is not a “best of” list. You can’t claim something is the best if you haven’t tried every other product like it on the market. These are my favorite games at this point in time, labeled as a top ten with honorable mentions. I did try to weigh the more recent games a bit more heavily as it wouldn’t be fun to see the same ten games on the list every year. That really stinks, because there are so many awesome games out there that I want to mention! Go check out the previous years’ DGA Awards for more games that I REALLY like, as well as my written reviews & YouTube playlists to see all the games that I own.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/2016-dga-awards/feed/036210First: A Game of Knowledge and Discovery (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/first-a-game-of-knowledge-and-discovery-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/first-a-game-of-knowledge-and-discovery-preview/#respondWed, 02 Nov 2016 21:55:27 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36191Trivia games, in general, make me feel stupid at times and surprise surprise, I don’t find them to be all that fun as a result. “First: A Game of Knowledge and Discovery” or simply “First”, a game that’s looking for your help on Kickstarter as of 11/2/2016, promises to break the mold in that regard. A minimum pledge of $45 will net you the full game, though there are plenty of levels to pledge to should this game be of interest to you. Special thanks to Game Designer Melissa L. Tatum for reaching out and providing a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes aren’t often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

2-7 players, Ages 13+, Average Play Time = 30-45 Minutes

The game itself comes with 1 canvas board, 7 character cards and pawns, 7 status cards (good to go/lose a turn), 28 knowledge tokens (7 each of blue, green, orange, and purple), 1 deck of 88 master trivia cards, 1 deck of 88 apprentice trivia cards, 1 deck of 88 who?what?where? challenge cards, 1 deck of 40 skills and events cards, 1 six-sided die, and instructions. The Deluxe version of the game, which can be obtained via a $175 pledge, includes upgraded pawns and tokens, all of which is packaged in a wooden box.

Upon first glance, “First” seemed to me like an enhanced version of “Trivial Pursuit” in that you had a board that you moved around on, drawing trivia cards in the process. In addition, answering a question correctly will earn you a knowledge token (like a piece of the pie in “Trivial Pursuit”). Where this game differs however are the skills and events deck, which allows players to earn special abilities as well as leave things up to chance for once. For example, some of these cards may create opportunities with which to steal tokens from another player.

To begin the game, each player chooses one of seven characters, each of which has a special ability (another mechanic that differs from the original “Trivial Pursuit”). They then receive a pawn and place it on their home space. Players, in turn, roll a die and move around the board, following the directions on the space to which they land. The test your knowledge space, for example, allows the player to pick a category and try to answer the question. Getting the question right earns them a knowledge token of that category along with the benefit of rolling again. Skills and events are a bit more up in the air and can be either good or bad. The first player to return home with all four knowledge tokens is the winner.

“First” is a pretty fun and interesting take on your average classic trivia game. The characters and their special abilities, for example, give players a slight advantage in certain aspects of the game when normally everyone would start out on equal footing. In addition, there are two trivia decks…one apprentice level deck and one master level deck. The former, obviously, is designed as a handicap for younger kids should they want to play. The age limit on the box indicates 13+, so the questions may still be somewhat challenging for anyone younger than that. As a parent, you’ll need to be the judge as every child grows at different speeds.

We had a great time play-testing this one. I think my preference in playing this game over something else boiled down to its flexibility…that is, you have more options available to you than simply having to answer a question. That in itself is a great trait for a game like this, because who wants to feel stupid on a regular basis? One card even allows you to look up the answer to a question, if you can believe it. That’s something that I was never able to do with games like “Trivial Pursuit” when I was growing up. Getting my family and friends to break the rules was tough enough, but that’s a whole different ball game.

Admittedly, you could make the game less confrontational if you so choose. For example, there are challenge cards that are used when one player lands on another player’s home space. In this scenario, a round of challenges is conducted and if successful, the aggressor to the raid can steal a token from the defender. This might cause a few feathers to ruffle in those who are highly competitive, so leaving these out is certainly possible. Like I said, this game has flexibility. This fact alone makes “First” well worth checking out though you’d better hurry…the campaign only has about twenty days to go as of the date of this posting.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/first-a-game-of-knowledge-and-discovery-preview/feed/036191Darkrock Ventureshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/darkrock-ventures/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/darkrock-ventures/#respondTue, 01 Nov 2016 10:26:07 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36162I used to mine a lot of ore in space way back in the day. I’d hop in my rust-bucket spaceship held together by duct tape and blast off toward the nearest asteroid field where I’d spend minutes scouring for the more precious ores, only for some jerk to come by and blast me out of my cockpit because they could (oh EVE Online, those were the days). “Darkrock Ventures” luckily doesn’t fall into the same repetitive trap that most video games set in space have a habit of falling into…mine, sell, repeat. Rather, it’s a worker placement game that allows players to manipulate dice in a LOT of ways to mine that ore and make some money. Before going any further, I want to thank Ian Stedman from Magic Meeple Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

“Darkrock Ventures” surprised the heck out of me. The minute I opened the box and saw the dice I groaned, knowing that the dice gods would once again curse me with bad luck. They surely did, but it turned out that I had some help in the form of clever game play mechanics that spawned all sorts of possibilities. You see, most of the ore in the game is mined by rolling an exact number. Getting that exact number can be tough with two dice, especially when you have to commit workers before rolling some of said dice (the white dice are rolled before assigning workers & the black & player rig dice are rolled after). That’s where worker placement comes in…there are MANY spots available that allow you to re-roll, flip, and move dice around. Some even manipulate workers and their default placement rules. My vague overview of the way it all comes together doesn’t do the game justice.

For example, as stated above, two white mining dice are rolled first. From these, players have to decide what sum is likely to come up when they roll their rig die/dice AFTER placing their workers. In order to successfully mine, a player must pair any of the white mining dice or the black neutronium die with one of their rig dice and if the sum of any such pairing of two numbers is equal to a spot with one of your matching workers you placed earlier, you get to mine. It makes more sense when visually looking at it in the video below. If you take away anything from this, just know that there are dice rolling at different times and the sum of which you’re trying to manipulate in order to successfully mine. Mining allows you to collect ore which in turn can be sold for cash. The player with the most cash at the end of the game wins.

While players are trying to get the odds to be ever in their favor, they’ll have to contend with marauders. These guys show up to chase your workers away from doing anything on the station, though you can spend neutronium (the least valuable metal) to power shields and protect them. Marauders are optional, but make the game all the more interesting. Speaking of optional, there’s a research deck for game-lasting technologies that players can make use of by assigning workers there as well as Corporate Sponsor cards that define what players start with instead of the default ship & crew compliment. A couple of variants are available in the back of the manual, including a solo/team co-op mode where you all work together as opposed to against each other. The co-op mode definitely adds more to the game and I’m glad the developers made this happen.

“Darkrock Ventures” is one heck of a simple yet strategic worker-placement game. I normally hate dice rolling games that rely on luck, but love exceptions like this where the dice can be manipulated in ways that benefit the player despite a bad roll. It reminds me a bit of “Stone Age” in the sense that workers are committed first before the final dice results are determined. You don’t know what’ll happen until the last second, making any worker placement choice a risk in itself. “Darkrock Ventures” just released with an MRSP of $50, though I’ve seen sales as low as $34 (like on Miniature Market) as of the date of this posting. It’s also a featured game on “Tabletop Simulator” for those of you who “video game”. I’d say that’s fair for what you’re getting here as the replayability is extremely high, what with the optional content and different game modes.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/darkrock-ventures/feed/0361625-Minute Dungeon (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/5-minute-dungeon-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/5-minute-dungeon-preview/#respondMon, 31 Oct 2016 19:32:11 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36128Why are cooperative tabletop games so successful? I suspect it has something to do with the fact that everyone is on the same team…those of you with kids know how THAT goes, especially with games that encourage backstabbing and the like to win. Feelings get hurt and egos get bruised, which is so not the point of having “family fun night” in the first place. “5-Minute Dungeon”, a game that’ll be launching its campaign on Kickstarter on November 1st, 2016, fits nicely into my collection for all the above mentioned reasons in that it’s quick, easy to play, and cooperative in nature. Before we get started, I’d like to thank Sarah Gumina on behalf of Wiggles 3D for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see and read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

Setting up the game turned out to be pretty simple, though I expected as much from a game that takes five minutes to play. Yes, you’re timed, though no need to fret…I’m all about adjusting the rules to suit our play style. For a more casual experience for example, bump up the time limit during setup to six minutes. In short, players choose one of ten heroes to play individually takes their respective hero mat and deck (each hero has its own colored deck). Players start with a hand of cards, the number of which depends on how many people are playing the game. In a two-player game, each player will take an additional deck and shuffle it in with their chosen hero’s deck. The dungeon is formed by observing the appropriate boss’s mat (there are five total, numbered 1-5)…it’ll tell you how many doors cards to add to the boss deck. Two challenge cards per player are shuffled into said boss deck. Optionally, you can download the game’s official five minute app timer, though you can use any timing device.

Gameplay is both simple and fast…or at least, you should aim to be fast to beat the timer. As a collective, every player has five minutes to defeat the boss or lose the game. There are no player turns, so play when you want while coordinating with others freely. When you flip the first door card (they start face down), the timer begins. Dealing with most door cards are done by playing a resource card from your hand of the matching symbol. Certain action cards perform a similar function. Each hero has a unique ability that requires the player to discard three cards to use it. Any time you play cards, you immediately refill your hand back up to the hand limit. If you’re out of cards in your hand AND draw pile, then you’ll have to wait until another player plays something that allows you to get back into the game (like a donation or heal card). In addition to letting the time limit expire, players can also lose by not being able to deal with the revealed door card or if all players run out of cards. Should you get through all the cards and deal with the current boss (players start with the Baby Barbarian – #1), they can set things up and play another game using boss #2.

While I didn’t touch on all of the rules in the manual, the above should give you a good idea as far as what to expect. I liked the addition of the cards that allowed you to take from your discard pile (or receive cards from others), though there is a stipulation that action cards and resource cards used for dealing with door cards are swept away (removed from the match forever). The only time you actually put cards into your discard pile is when using your special ability or through some event that was observed when a door was revealed. I mentioned above that there were ten heroes to choose between…that is partially true. The game supports a max of five players, with the hero mats being double sided. There is a Barbarian class and a Gladiator class, for example, that both use the same red deck. When choosing the red deck, the player will have to decide on which of the two they want to play as. No one else can use the red deck (and thus the other class) but them as again, the hero mats are double-sided. With that said, each class and deck is fairly unique as they contain cards that do abilities you’d expect from that class. A Paladin/Valkyrie have cards like heal, divine shield, and holy hand grenade to contribute to the battle, just to name an example.

“5-Minute Dungeon” has got a lot of spunk for such a quick little game. Gameplay is extremely simple but the different class decks give each player their own unique identity, just as you would experience if you were raiding while playing an MMORPG like “World of Warcraft”. The five minute timer puts me off a little because I hate to be rushed, though as mentioned above, there are ways around that. I see no reason why you can’t pad a few extra minutes to the five minute timer and define it as an “easy mode” of sorts. Playing with two players felt a bit less thematic in that RPG way as players use two decks instead of one…but again, there are ways around that. For example, each player could manage two hero mats/two heroes/two decks instead of one. There’d be some balance issues with this approach possibly, so feel free to experiment. All in all, this is one cooperative game you’ll want to check out whether it be as a filler or the main attraction.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/5-minute-dungeon-preview/feed/036128STORY CRAZE (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/story-craze-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/story-craze-preview/#respondTue, 25 Oct 2016 14:50:08 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36107Kids, it turns out, have quite the active imagination. Whether it be excuses as to why the chores didn’t get done or blaming an ill-mannered smelly/noisy bodily function on some sort of imaginary animal, kids certainly know how to make your brain spin. That’s why I have a feeling “STORY CRAZE” is going to be a success, because it encourages kids to be creative and tell stories…after all, you can bet they’re going to do it anyway in some other setting. Why not direct their energy into creating something fun that the whole family can laugh about? Before we talk more about this upcoming Kickstarter project, I’d like to thank Maestro & COO Ellen Stebbins from StoryClub Games, LLC for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see here subject to change.

“STORY CRAZE” is easy to set up…simply give each team a pencil and story sheet from the pad. Teams can be one person should you wish to fly solo, though the more people you have playing, the better. You’ll also separate out the cards into their appropriate decks…that is, “People”, “Places”, “Things”, and “Judge” decks. When you’re ready to begin, each team will draw a card from each of the “People”, “Places”, and “Things” deck and then brainstorm to come up with a story that includes the content on said cards. Teams have ten minutes to brainstorm and write up a chapter on their individual story sheets (starting with chapter one). After teams are finished or the time limit expires, teams read their stories aloud and choose a judge (usually the youngest player for chapter one, then the second youngest for chapter two, and so on). The judge then draws a judge card and chooses the team whose story they liked the best, awarding that team a point. Objections are possible too, if a good enough of a case can be made.

That’s not the only way to play, though. You could, for example, opt to have the judge draw a card before stories are actually written. Alternatively, you could simply remove that step from play altogether so that you can concentrate on creating some pretty outrageous stories. Your group could also decide on a specific theme before playing, should you want to. For example, if your family is currently camping, you could keep your stories focused on events related to that topic. Of course, you’re highly encouraged to include something silly to keep people laughing. That’s one thing that “STORY CRAZE” has in abundance…the freedom to allow all parties playing to use their imagination. With all the different ways to play, there’s bound to be at least one “game mode” with which your family and friends will enjoy losing themselves.

Out of all the different ways to play, I recommend drawing the judge card before the story the crafting of stories begins so that every team has a chance to draft their story accordingly. If you’re less strict about such things and are in it simply for the fun, then remove the judge cards and aim to have the silliest story every single time. When we play “Apples to Apples”, we tend to follow the silly route…that is, the person who makes us laugh the most wins. I suspect that a lot of folks play this way because let’s face it, playing games are a form of entertainment. Entertainment exists to help us get away from everyday life and lose ourselves a bit. If you’re not having fun with said form of entertainment, then you tend to put it down to go do something else, am I right? Well, that’s how I operate anyway.

The “People”, “Places”, and “Things” cards can also be ignored, though I recommend using them so that everyone’s story is almost guaranteed to be different (especially if you decided to focus on a particular theme). I mean, a story about a dancing bear on your camping trip might get a bit old when unintentionally told for the third time in a row. These cards help to prevent that from happening as they provide specific nouns for teams to use. One team might get “french fries” as a thing, for example, while another team might get “an Xbox or Playstation game”.

“STORY CRAZE” comes with 150 “People”, “Places”, “Things”, and “Judge” cards total and while that may not SEEM like a lot, it’s important that remember that you’re only drawing one card from the former three for each team for the upcoming ten minute round. With three teams playing, that’s nine cards total for each round (plus the judge card). As a result, the risk of overlap is low when playing this game over the long haul. Most games last about a half-hour which is roughly three stories per team, though you’re free to play as long as you want.

On a personal note, I realized how much a game like this would benefit kids who are testing for various mental health conditions. Just recently, someone in our family was tested for autism and one of the activities we performed together was the act of telling a story with the figurines on the table. When I started playing “STORY CRAZE”, I was reminded of this event and thought how well this game would do in that type of setting. I mean, the game even has a ten minute sand timer so it’s not like it would be difficult to set up in a pinch.

In any event, adults or teachers responsible for the care of younger children would do well to go give this project a look. The Kickstarter campaign is due to launch on October 25th, 2016.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/story-craze-preview/feed/036107PRESS RELEASE: “AEGIS” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-aegis-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-aegis-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondSat, 22 Oct 2016 17:21:42 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36173Ready for some fast-paced robot combat mayhem? Of course you are. If you’re like me, you grew up with games like “Mech Warrior” that allowed you to sit inside the cockpit of a beast filled to the brim with weaponry. “AEGIS” is a hex-based tabletop tactics game that’s seeking your help on Kickstarter that, you guessed it, involves lots of combat utilizing teams of robots. There’s only a few days left to support the game, so time is of the essence.

Walter Barber from Greenbrier Games Inc. offered the following press release:

A.E.G.I.S. – Combining Robot Strategy Game’ is a fast-paced, hex-based tabletop tactics game where players use teams of five combining robots to face off against one other in combat. Your squad of robots share energy and fight as one united front. Combine your smaller robots into bigger more powerful ones to change the tide of battle! There are over 80 (now 90!) different robots in five different Classes (Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel, Support), and finding the right strategy and combos are the keys to victory! It’s designed to be more accessible than your average tactics game, with the same huge depth of strategy. Quick to play, easy to learn and with hundreds of team possibilities, AEGIS is perfect for newcomers to the strategy game scene and wargaming veterans.

A.E.G.I.S. was designed by a team of students at Becker College for a senior capstone project back in 2013. Proceeding to become two-time winners of the business competition Start-Up Worcester, the group evolved into Zephyr Workshop, an independent game company dedicated to creating easy to learn games with distinct IP. In the process of self-publishing A.E.G.I.S., the team met Jeff Gracia of Greenbrier Games, who fell in love with the game and Zephyr Workshop’s entrepreneurial spirit. After agreeing to co-develop and publish the game through Greenbrier Games, A.E.G.I.S. has appeared at dozens of game conventions, and been play tested by tons of fans nation wide. GBG and Zephyr Workshop are proud to present a tactics game with a modest learning curve that does sacrifice any of the depth of strategy that comes from the more expense and complex wargame counter parts.

It can’t be understated that A.E.G.I.S. has been a pure passion project. A world with a distinct style all its own, but still be familiar enough to pull at the heartstrings of anyone who loves classic fighting super robots. From Power Rangers to GaoGaiGar to Gurren Lagann to Voltron to Medabots to Evangelion to G Gundam to Getter Robo (the list goes on!) – this is it. This is the definitive tabletop game about explosive combining robot combat.

The game is launching with two different boxes, the red Arc Buster box and the blue Sky Guard box. Each is a stand-alone game for 2-4 players which will retail for $40 MSRP.’

Some new additions for the final week include 10 additional high-end robots to the roster (5 in each box), and new create your own robot reward tier, and some sweet add ons!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-aegis-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036173Cosmic Pioneershttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cosmic-pioneers/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cosmic-pioneers/#respondThu, 20 Oct 2016 01:19:20 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36154“Cosmic Pioneers” is a rather interesting area control game that unfortunately falls short in a few areas. What impressed me the most, in all honesty, was how the game was set up. That sounds strange, I know. Most game set ups involve some sort of repetitive ritual that most people detest. Here, the system of planets is different almost every time and is made up of the alien and scenario cards drawn for the game. Once you get past setup, you’ll find the game to be a mix of strategy and luck with a lean more towards the latter. I didn’t like the required “going on an adventure” roll, for example, as there was no way to avoid bad rolls. Part of me wanted to play the game without that phase altogether to assist in keeping things somewhat less random. Landing on another player also involves a die roll with the loser crash landing and unloading all cargo onto an adjacent viable planet. Sure, you can offset the combat roll by upgrading your ship’s weapons, but you’re still at the mercy of the die gods.

With that said, the aliens and their abilities made for an interesting time. You see, players earn victory points at the end of the game for every colonist they have on a planet, for every planet they control, and how much money they have left over (money can be used during the game to upgrade your ship’s weapons, cargo, bombs, and engines). Each alien does something different but in most cases, they kill colonists or prevent you from taking up space on the planet they occupy. Each player also gets a player board with a unique ability which is nice (though nothing earth-shattering new). The manual is short and somewhat of a mess. While the core concepts are easy to grasp, the manual would have benefited from having a thorough FAQ section.

Some gameplay decisions also tend to not be very thematic. For example, how is it that players can place colonists from their reserve (not their cargo) onto planets if they’re lucky enough to roll well during the adventure phase, but then must unload colonists from their cargo spaces during the deployment phase? How did the former colonists get there without needing to go through the process of being loaded via a jumpgate and being ferried? Unless the manual text “reserves” also means “cargo spaces”…without an FAQ or clearer manual it’s hard to know. This isn’t a bad game, don’t get me wrong, but it required us to house rule a few times because either we didn’t like the gameplay mechanics or because the manual wasn’t clear enough. While it isn’t the worst game I’ve ever played, it’s not the best either. This game ended up falling into a “let’s play it when we’re tired of our other games” category, and only when we’ve come up with our own rule set to make it enjoyable.

“Cosmic Pioneers”, I feel, will appeal to gamers who don’t mind a little RNG…that is, random number generating. Will you get credits or crash land? Will you win combat or crash land? If dice hate you as they do me, then you’ll find yourself on the losing side no matter how strategically you play. As such, “Cosmic Pioneers” won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and in my opinion, needs more time in the oven. The game also doesn’t come with enough baggies to properly hold all the little components. “Cosmic Pioneers” isn’t retailing yet (as of the date of this posting) so I have no idea what the price is going to be…though I’m assuming it’ll be around $40+ which was the pledge minimum to get the game on Kickstarter. Honestly, I can think of better games that scratch that area-control itch within that price range.

Final Verdict: 4/10

Editor’s Note: Regardless of the score, special thanks goes to Project Manager Anastasios Grigoriadis for providing me with a press copy.

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cosmic-pioneers/feed/036154Super Powered Smash Masters (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/super-powered-smash-masters-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/super-powered-smash-masters-preview/#respondTue, 18 Oct 2016 09:40:19 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35983I wasn’t a big fan of wrestling as a kid, but I always enjoyed a good “Royal Rumble”…that is, more than six wrestlers in the ring at once trying to eliminate each other. Now imagine the same kind of setting, except the wrestlers are super heroes with some really wicked powers. Interested? Thought so. “Super Powered Smash Masters” will be coming to Kickstarter in September of 2016, so you won’t have long to wait. Special thanks to Adam Cogan from Dark Unicorn Games for sending me a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

2-8 players ages 10+

The game includes a single box 4-player base set of 250 cards with no randoms. Each player begins by choosing nine heroes to form their hero stack and fifty non-hero cards to form your draw deck. Each card (hero or non-hero) must be unique and you can include up to 25 smash cards in your deck. Smash cards are your basic damage cards, though there are other cards that you should most certainly include as well to bring the hurt to your opponents. Each hero has a Super card, for example, that can only be played by them. Including them into your deck will not only provide you with a powerful attack, but allow your to revive a stunned hero when played.

The basic idea of the game is this: each player starts with three active heroes. Your objective is to eliminate and deplete your opponents’ deck of heroes so that your heroes are the only ones that remain standing. A successful hit stuns an active hero, turning it 90 degrees and making it useless. A successful hit on a stunned hero eliminates them. Whenever a hero is defeated, the defending player immediately draws a new hero from their stack. Players start with a hand of five cards and maintain that five card hand at ALL times…meaning if you play one, you immediately draw one to replace it.

On a player’s turn, they can do one of eight things:

1. Attack with a smash card. These are basic attacks that heroes can perform against other heroes. If the defender cannot counter, they are stunned (if already stunned, they are defeated). If the attacker cannot defend against a counter by countering themselves, then they become stunned. Once again, stunned heroes cannot attack and are essentially useless.

2. Use a hero card’s power. Each hero has a special power that allows them to do unique things. Some are passive can don’t cost a turn while other power-based attacks do.

3. Play a story card. These are events that effect all teams.

4. Play a super card. As explained above, each hero has a unique super card that you’ll want to include in your deck. It can be played when they’re active to deliver some nasty effects, or used to revive a stunned hero back to active status.

5. Attack with a team up card. Using two active heroes with power types that match the card, the player can deliver an attack that can immediately defeat a defender assuming they are countered.

6. Play a loot card. Loot cards grant new powers to an active hero with the matching power. Only one active hero per team can be equipped with a loot card at a time. When the hero is defeated, the loot card is discarded unless otherwise noted.

7. Discard an unwanted card from your hand and draw a new one from the deck. You must do this if no other action is possible.

8. Place one of their stunned heroes into the defeated pile and draw a new hero to replace them.

Turns continue until only one player remains, in which case they win the game! It’s important to note that I didn’t cover everything found in the rulebook, but the above should give you a good idea as to how the game is played.

“Super Powered Smash Masters” is a pretty fun pick-up-and-play brawler that even the most casual of gamers can get into. Like any card game in the genre, the toughest part will be getting used to the cards, their special effects, and when it’s best to use them. This game reminded me slightly of “Super Smash Brothers”, a video game I often frequent when I want to virtually bash someone’s head in with a Donkey Kong hammer. They’re both spontaneous and a lot of fun, though the former is a bit more luck driven since you’re drawing cards.

I enjoyed the freedom of building my own team of heroes and deck of cards. I also like the “no duplicates” rule, as without it folks could find a card that works very well for them and spam a bunch into their deck and really ruin someone’s day. With the no duplicates rule, the game is a bit more random and chaotic as you never know what your strategy is going to be throughout the game. “Magic: The Gathering” builds, for example, often revolve around chaining a particular set of cards to some great effect. Here, you’re constantly adapting to what you’re drawing without having to plan all that much.

Don’t fret…there’s still some strategy involved and it’s not all random. The strategy comes into play when forming your deck and choosing heroes and cards that use a particular power type. You can opt to focus on mutant or gadget heroes, for example, and choose loot cards and the like that compliment them (sort of like choosing mana colors in “Magic: The Gathering”). You also have control over what type of cards seed your deck…meaning you can place more counters than usual to ensure you draw defensive cards on a regular basis or perhaps focus on story cards that YOU know are coming that your opponent may not be equipped to handle.

Both casual and fun, “Super Powered Smash Masters” is one brawler that you’ll want to don your cape for because regardless of who wins or loses, you’re in for a good time.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/super-powered-smash-masters-preview/feed/035983Luminous Ages (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/luminous-ages-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/luminous-ages-preview/#respondFri, 07 Oct 2016 00:24:49 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36091If you’ve ever dreamt of being a mage who has the ability to summon lands and creatures at his/her fingertips? “Luminous Ages”, a card game that’s seeking funding through the Kickstarter process starting October 12th, 2016, aims to do just that. While your ultimate goal is to bring your “dream god” into play and keep them there for three consecutive turns, you can also win by draining your opponent’s dream life to negative ten points. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Game Creator Anthony Christou for sending me a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see and read about here subject to change.

“Luminous Ages” includes quite a number of different ways to play at this point in time. The default/core mode is where the meat and potatoes of the game lie, though the other five turned out to be just as interesting. For example, there’s a shared deck mode to where both players draw cards from the same deck while the basic mode is suited for beginners as creature abilities are removed and so on. There’s also a cooperative mode that supports 1-6 players for those looking to team up against the game itself as opposed to each other.

In order to keep things moving I won’t be listing out all of the rules found in the manual (you can read it yourself via the link on the game’s Kickstarter page), but I do plan to hi-lite the things that made me enjoy playing it.

To put things in context, “Luminous Ages” plays a little like “Magic: The Gathering” what with the tapping of cards, summoning of creatures, and the use of creature abilities. There are also land cards like core lands, dream lands, and so on that provide you with the dream energy you’ll need to do these things. Unlike “MTG”, lands are not color specific, meaning you don’t need a red land to summon a red creature card and so on. I personally liked this approach as I found I was able to create decks with a bit more ease and without feeling restricted.

While you could, in theory, use all sorts of colors when creating your deck it’s generally a good idea to stick to a few as like colored cards have a synergy that will give you a leg up in some ways. Like “MTG”, each color/alliance has its own strengths and weaknesses. What does this mean for you? Well, for one, you have a bit more choice when creating a deck. You could opt to take the best cards regardless of color and seed your deck with a bunch of heavy hitters, or instead create a less powerful synergy deck that will ensure you get the most out of the cards you’ve picked. Like I said before, I found this approach to be refreshing mainly because “MTG” often forces you to stick to one or two colors. “Luminous Ages”, by the way, features eight colors (compared to “MTG’s” five + neutral cards). Three are Tranquil, two are Mare, and the other three are neutral.

Player turns and combat are pretty much what I expected as I’m relatively familiar with “MTG” and “Star Wars: The Card Game”. There are multiple phases that let you draw a card, un-tilt spent cards, use creature abilities, attack your opponent, and so on. Attacking is for the most part straight-forward, what with the attacker choosing the creatures to be used while the defender decided whether or not to defend with his. Destroyed creatures go to the discarded dream pile. Unblocked attacks result in the draining/capturing/destruction of land cards. Anyone who has played a living card game before will more than likely pick up the rules here with ease.

As mentioned above, players win by gaining dream life (30) and keeping a dream god in play for three consecutive turns. Players can earn dream life by bringing out certain land cards, taking control of an opponent’s land cards, summoning a dream, legendary, or quest creature, casting spells, destroying an opponent’s dream creature, and more. You lose dream life by losing control over your lands or by allowing your dream creatures to be defeated. As you can clearly see, “Luminous Ages” provides players with more ways to win (or lose) making gameplay a bit more strategic.

To give you a better idea of how the gameplay flows, I’ve opted to include three separate videos below provided by the developer. While lengthy, they should give you a good idea as to what you’re in for should you decide to support “Luminous Ages”. Once again, it’ll be featured on Kickstarter sometime around October 12th, 2016 so give it a look if you fancy card games like “Magic: The Gathering”. Oh, and those gaming mats…just wow! You can pledge for those too…something to think about.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/luminous-ages-preview/feed/036091Xtronaut: The Game of Solar System Explorationhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/xtronaut-the-game-of-solar-system-exploration/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/xtronaut-the-game-of-solar-system-exploration/#respondTue, 20 Sep 2016 12:51:55 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36081Rarely do I come across an educational game that makes me wish I was back in Science class way back when I was a wee lad…”Xtronaut: The Game of Solar System Exploration” did that to me and then some. Almost half of the rulebook is a workbook containing interactive activities like crossword puzzles while other parts teach you about the very science you’re “playing” with throughout the game. It’s easily a thumbs up from me and can be found (as of the date of this posting) on Miniature Market for about $25…Amazon lists a $35 price (use the sidebar search tool to send a little change my way), so I’d grab it from the former unless you have Amazon Prime (free two-day shipping). The components are top notch so I decided to do a video tutorial / review, so go check it out below before you leave this page. My only real complaint was that the game didn’t come with a couple of baggies or rubber bands to hold the cards while the box was closed for non-use. Special thanks to Game Designer Dante Lauretta for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Xtronaut: 2-4 Players, Ages 7+, Average Play Time = 30 minutes

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/xtronaut-the-game-of-solar-system-exploration/feed/036081Royalshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/royals/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/royals/#respondSat, 17 Sep 2016 22:45:21 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36076Think YOU have what it takes to gain control of 17th century Europe? Then you’ve come to the right place. Don’t worry, you won’t need to manage armies or build an economy…rather, you’ll be gaining points based on how far your influence takes you. Players will be playing country cards to place their cubes onto various people who occupy influential positions and score victory points. You can gain victory points a number of different ways…being the first to put a cube on a particular city, occupying all of the cities of a country…the list goes on. I opted for a video review as the game is very visual and easy to play, so be sure to check it out below. Spoiler: “Royals” reminds me of “Ticket to Ride” in some ways, which is a VERY good thing. Special thanks to Tony Gullotti from Arcane Wonders for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Royals: 2-5 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 60 Minutes

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/royals/feed/036076Roll Playerhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/roll-player/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/roll-player/#respondSat, 10 Sep 2016 21:40:23 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36065I’m not a fan of paper and pencil RPGs, but I do play a lot of RPGs on the PC. “Skyrim”, “The Witcher III”, “Dragon Age”…you know, games that allow you to level up your attributes in one way or another and gather loot. “Roll Player” is a board game about making a character in the most efficient way possible based on their class, back story, and alignment. As the name of the game implies, you’ll be using dice to do so. I decided to do a video review as I had a lot to cover, but in short I really enjoyed this one…so much in fact that I intend to play the game again tonight just after launching this review. It just oozes theme and gives players a LOT of options to modify dice on their character sheet so that they can meet their individual requirements. As a fan of PC RPGs, I love “Roll Player” and what it does. If you’ve done any sort of role-playing in the past, then you should too. Go check out the below video for the specifics. Special thanks to game creator Keith Matejka for providing me a press copy for review purposes.

Roll Player: 2-4 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 60-90 Minutes

Final Verdict: 10/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/roll-player/feed/036065The Manhattan Project: Chain Reactionhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-manhattan-project-chain-reaction/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-manhattan-project-chain-reaction/#respondFri, 09 Sep 2016 01:28:45 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36060Finally, a game about “yellow cake” that doesn’t include a three-second rule. You see, this kind of yellow cake is a tad…well, nuclear. In “The Manhattan Project: Chain Reaction”, you’ll be using yellow cake, uranium, and labor in order to build bombs and score victory points. Doing this will involve the chaining of cards so that inputs produce outputs, although cards can be used for their indicated labor too (not both). We chose to share our first playthrough and first impressions in the video below so that you can see how gameplay flows, but our resolve that the game is awesome still holds strong after the fact. Special thanks to James Mathe from Minion Games for providing us with a press copy for review purposes.

The artwork is superb and the cards felt “just right” when it came time to shuffle them. There’s a little bit of luck with the cards you draw, though players can make use of not-so-efficient landmark cards that anyone can use at any time to convert labor to some other labor/resource in a 3:1 ratio. Gameplay is quick too, though our first few games went over the 30 minute average play time because we were weighing our options. I think the steepest learning curve in “The Manhattan Project: Chain Reaction” (which isn’t so steep, really) are the factory cards and what they can do.

After a while, it became obvious to me that the natural progression was to gather yellow cake, then use it with labor to acquire uranium, then build your bombs. Play only goes to ten points, so it’s not uncommon for someone to signal the last round with only two bombs in front of them as most average from 4-6 points. You can even load bombs of four points or less for an additional two points assuming you have the right kind of labor available.

The below video will show you the specifics, but I was surprised by how much energy and power came from within such a tiny box. Then again, it could have been the radioact…I mean, yellow cake. Easily recommended to folks who enjoy light to moderately strategy card games that involve the chaining of cards and resources.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-manhattan-project-chain-reaction/feed/036060HoliMaths X (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/holimaths-x-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/holimaths-x-preview/#respondWed, 07 Sep 2016 00:31:27 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36032As both an adult and a parent, I recognize how important a solid education is in the grand scheme of things. Sure, I haven’t used the Quadratic Formula since High School, but I have had to use basic math on a regular basis…especially with some of the Euro-tabletop games I play. I’m also an accountant, so there’s that too. That’s why I enjoy playing educational games that test these skills, especially with those who still have their whole life ahead of them (like my kids). “HoliMaths X”, a 1-6 player game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter in September of 2016, is one such item that focuses heavily on multiplication. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Matt Roman from HoliPlay Games for sending me a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not reflective of the final product, making everything you read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

One of the things that impressed me right away about “HoliMaths X” was that there wasn’t just one way to play…rather, the game comes with ten different ways to play. My prototype copy was in Spanish, though the ten English PDF files I received averaged between two and four pages each. Each one also had a convenient YouTube video walkthrough link that helped me visualize what each game was all about. The prototype itself came with 72 Problem Cards, 72 Solution Cards, 6 Problem Wild Cards, 6 Solution Wild Cards, 3 Help Cards that contain all of the multiplication tables, 1 Grid Help Card, 1 Scoring Card, 1 Magic Solution Bag, and 1 Community Card.

My previews normally consist of me detailing the rules of the game I’m covering, though in this case, I’ll opt to give you a brief look at some of the ten variants in order to keep this article at a respectable length. As such, these overviews will not cover everything found in their respective rulebooks. However, I did link the first “Original” variant’s video at the end of this article so that you could follow/subscribe to the developer’s YouTube channel in order to see more information on each of the ten variants.

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Original – As the name implies, this is the main version of the game. Players draw a hand of six problem and six solution cards after shuffling each separately. On a player’s turn, they’ll draw a problem card and a solution card, then attempt to make matches with the cards they have in their hand by playing them onto the table. Most cards have a symbol on them that will determine the card’s score value at the end of the game. The game plays very similarly to Rummy in the sense that you can use cards already played by your opponents to make matches. You can also replace existing wild cards (so as long as the formula works) to up your score. The first player to get rid of all of their cards with no unsolved problems in front of them ends the game and gets 100 bonus points. Players use the scoring card to determine the value of their played cards and subtracting points as necessary due to penalties and the like.

Stairs – Players use the problem cards only and each player receives six at the beginning of the game. Essentially, players will be laying down cards onto an imaginary grid adjacent to cards already in play. One card is drawn from the deck face-up onto the grid to start things off. A 2X5 card, for example, could be played next to a 2X6 card. The game ends when a player runs out of cards and scores are tallied via the scoring card / symbols.

Expert – This variant is similar to the Stairs variant, but is only played with the solution cards. This forces players to take things a step further and figure out the problem before laying down the card in the grid. If an 18 is showing, for example, then the card would be on the imaginary 2X9 spot of the grid. If you had a 16 in your hand, you could play it onto the imaginary 2X8 spot adjacent to it on the left (rows start with 2X1, then 2X2, and so on). Scoring works the same way as in the aforementioned Stairs variant.

Focus – This variant is a bit like “Concentration”, which is a memory game. A set of problem cards and solution cards are laid out in separate sides of the table. On a player’s turn, they’ll flip one of each to see if the problem matches the solution. If it does, they collect the cards and continue to play. An incorrect pairing ends a player’s turn. When all cards have been collected, whoever has the most points via the scoring symbols wins.

Fast – This variant plays like “War” in the sense that both players receive a deck of problem cards and draw one at the same time. The first player to say the solution who also has the highest score between the two cards collects all of the cards in play. When a player runs out of cards from their deck, the game is over and the winner is determined by points via the scoring symbols.

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Keep in mind that the above lists only five out of the ten ways to play and not all of the rules were outlined. Hopefully though, it’ll give you a small taste as to what you’re in for should you decide to support the game. There’s even a Solitaire version that anyone can make use of to flex their brain, which is a plus for kids who find flash cards boring.

“HoliMaths X” is good, clean, educational fun. It’s perfect for use both at home and in the classroom. The ten different ways to play will ensure that your experience is new and fresh each and every time. This is one educational game that should be in every parent / teacher’s arsenal.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/holimaths-x-preview/feed/036032Wormhole!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/wormhole/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/wormhole/#respondSun, 04 Sep 2016 22:49:52 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35879Let’s say that you and a squadron (or even fleet) of ships were flying through space minding your own business when suddenly, your sensors collectively warn you of impending doom. We’re not talking space pirates or meteor showers…rather, a wormhole that is sucking you all in that leads to who knows where. Heck, it could even crush your ship like an egg. All you know is that you want to be the LAST one to enter that thing and you guessed it, that’s the primary goal of “Wormhole!”. Before we get into the details, I’d like to thank Andrew Needles from Epic Penguin Studios for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Wormhole!: 2-8 players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes

Editor’s Note: I opted to overview gameplay in the video featured at the end of this review.

The Review

“Wormhole!” plays a little bit like “Gravwell” in the sense that you’re moving pawns along a spiral path only here, the goal is reversed. In “Gravwell”, the first player to escape from the 9th dimension (by reaching the last outermost space) wins the game. Here, players are aiming to be the last one standing by being the last player to NOT reach the center. It’s an interesting twist, I’ll admit, and it had our group fighting for their lives much like they do in “Tsuro“.

Gameplay itself is fairly straight forward, though no less exciting. The mass system acts as a ticking clock as the more you acquire, the more dice you roll and the faster you speed toward your untimely demise. For those of you curious, ships start at 100 mass (which requires one die to be rolled) and for every 100 mass you acquire thereafter, you roll an addition die. This makes acquiring mass a really, really bad thing. Luckily, some cards you draw (like the green ones) can be played to help you out and/or screw over someone else. Acquiring mass is done through cards as well, so let’s hope lady luck favors you as you’re drawing from the deck.

Along those lines, I did take issue with a few things. Luck, to which I recently referred, plays a big factor in who wins. Sure, playing those green cards at the right time may just indeed save your bacon, but that’s only if you’re fortunate enough to draw them. You could run into the problem of drawing mass and or negative red event cards every turn, making the chance of winning the game almost nil. I also took issue with the $39.99 price tag on the game’s The Game Crafter page, though the developers mentioned that they may do some sort of crowd funding campaign to lower the price in the future. To me, this felt more like a $20-$30 game, which happens to be roughly what “Gravwell” goes for on Amazon (at least, at the time this article posted).

On the plus side, “Wormhole!” supports up to a whopping eight players, ensuring that no one at home is left out. It’s also very easy to play…heck the PDF rulebook is only a page long. “Wormhole!” came across as if “Tsuro” and “Gravwell” had a child together, the end result being a rather fun & casual last man standing space-themed game fit for all ages.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/wormhole/feed/035879PRESS RELEASE: “7 Seize” Seeking Support on Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-7-seize-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-7-seize-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondSat, 27 Aug 2016 22:45:35 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36034It’s quite a feat when I can claim that a game mechanic crosses my path that I haven’t seen very often. Weighing your booty (treasure, not the backside) via the game’s container itself is one of them. “7 Seize”, a pirate-themed family friendly game that’s on Kickstarter right now (as of 8/27/2016), is looking for your support to reach a goal of $28,103 within 26 days. Current pledges have almost already reached the $5,000 mark with a total of 70+ backers.

Jeep Barnett, Creator of “7 Seize”, had this to say:

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Rock the Boat at Your Next Game Night by Pirating This Booty Grabbing Game

There’s nothing better than gathering your motley crew of friends around the card table to banter and roll some dice. But steering everyone toward a new game can leave you stranded in dangerous waters. Children and tipsy mates have a short attention span for rules, and even if the game doesn’t stick your money is already sunk.

Point your looking glass toward 7 Seize ( http://7-Seize.com ), an innovative party game that’s not just about pirates – you’re encouraged to pirate the game itself! “Everyone already has a deck of playing cards,” says its creator, Jeep Barnett. “Grab that plus a few bits and bobs from around the house and you’re ready to play 7 Seize for free.”

The rules can be taught in a snap and the goal has a unique hook: you’ll have to grab the heaviest booty to win! “Adding up your score can be dull or even impossible after too much rum.” Jeep jokes, “So in 7 Seize you’ll literally weigh the loot you’ve collected.” Throughout the game players clash wits to plunder game pieces, and savvy riggers can easily construct their own scale with the provided instructions. The scoring process itself becomes an engaging spectacle Jeep points out, “Kids love tossing booty on the scale one piece at a time to see when it tips in their favor.”

Complete sets are also available through the 7 Seize crowd funding campaign ( http://tinyurl.com/7seize ). This special edition comes in a handy vessel that transforms into the balance scale and features beautiful hand painted cards. “We pulled out all the stops to produce a super high quality version,” says Andrew Wilson, the game’s artist.

While this is Andrew and Jeep’s first independent tabletop production, their previous Cryptozic venture was successful with Portal: The Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game ( http://cryptozoic.com/portal-uncooperative-cake-acquisition-game ). Their biggest lesson transitioning from Portal to 7 Seize is that simpler doesn’t mean shallower. There’s a surprising amount of depth moored in its simplicity. “The more you play as a group, the more challenging and deep the game can be,” remarks GeekDad’s review ( https://geekdad.com/2016/08/7-seize ). “The strategy evolves as players decide if they want to sacrifice their best cards to try to become Captain or to challenge for first pick of the booty.”

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-7-seize-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/036034Word Domination (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/word-domination-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/word-domination-preview/#respondTue, 23 Aug 2016 17:17:34 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35956Word games like “Scrabble” are all well and good, but they often reward the players with the most vocabulary floating around their heads. This makes playing with children somewhat difficult, unless you limit yourself to three or four letter words that don’t earn yourself a whole lot of points. “Word Domination”, a game that’s coming to Kickstarter late August of 2016, doesn’t have that problem. Before I go into why that is, I’d like to thank Jeff Beck from Uproarious Games for providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see here (including the rules) subject to change.

Setting up everything proved fairly easy in that players will be preparing a grid of letter tiles, the size of which depending on the number of players. In a two player game, for example, you’ll use sixteen letters in a 4×4 grid by drawing randomly from the box. After that, each player draws an additional random letter from the box to form their starting hand. Players then choose a color and receive the associated tokens.

A player’s turn consists of three main actions:

1. Place your tile – Firstly, the active player will place the letter from their hand somewhere along the outer edge of the grid.

2. Spell a word – Then, the active player will spell a word using any of the letters in play, though it must contain the newly placed letter. The letters of the word need not be adjacent, though the same tile cannot be used twice. If a letter has been stolen it cannot be used (more on that later). Once finished, the active player will place a token of their color on each of the tiles used.

3. Draw a new tile – Lastly, the active player draws a new random tile from the box.

Okay, so you’ve got the basics down…but why are you placing tokens of your colors onto letter and what is stealing all about?

Players in this game take on the role of evildoers, looking to steal priceless artifacts. Letter tiles in this game represent a single priceless artifact. Whenever you place a token of your color onto a letter tile, you’re essentially looking to steal it on a future turn. If you spell a word with someone else’s token already on it, it is displaced by yours and the other player gets their token back.

To steal a letter, you simply need to use it a second time while your token is still on it. In other words, if your opponents can’t make words from the letters you used, your tokens won’t be displaced. Then, on your following turn, you have the chance to use the letter tiles containing your tokens to form a word and steal said letters (but only the ones that contain YOUR colored tokens). You can steal multiple letter tiles on a single turn.

Stolen letters are removed from the grid and placed in front of the player who stole them. The player will fill the grid’s gaps by drawing random tiles from the box but placing them “stolen” side up. The player who stole the letter(s) puts a colored token on each so that they can claim infamy points at the game’s end. Stolen letters can only be used by the player who stole them, no one else.

There is one exception to the above rules: Arsenal letters (they represent super weapons and gizmos). These are light blue in color as opposed to the standard dark blue letter tile. Each time you spell a word using an arsenal letter, you can use its special ability for that turn only. Stealing an arsenal letter works the same way AND you can use its ability when you use it on your turn.

There are some other miscellaneous rules to go over, like lending a hand and forcing your hand. To lend a hand, you can give clues to the other player as to the word you’re thinking of…how many letters it has, how many letters that player could steal using that word, and which letter in the word you would like as payment for your services. The active player has the option to accept or reject the offer, though if accepted, the helping player reveals the word and the active player must use it. When placing tokens, the helping player puts one of their own on the letter specified during the offer. It’s possible that every player may make an offer that you will reject, in which case they can force your hand by making you move within sixty seconds or your turn is skipped.

Turns continue until the sixth round is complete (a round is complete when everyone has had a turn). At this point, players add up their infamy points. Each stolen letter on the grid is worth one infamy point, though players receive a bonus point for each letter in a group of three or more adjacent tokens of their color. This is what I was referring to at the beginning of the article when I said that the person with the best vocabulary and longest words may not necessarily win. Strategic letter use can allow anyone to pull ahead via grouping. Diagonals, by the by, do not count as adjacent. Whoever has the most points once the smoke clears, wins!

It’s important to note that I didn’t cover ALL of the rules found in the manual (like what each arsenal letter does), but it should give you a general understanding as to what you’re in for should you decide to support this game.

I personally love “Word Domination”. Like other word games, your goal is simple: earn the most points. What makes this game so unique however are the rules and flow of play…everything from stealing letters and using special abilities to making offers and gaining a possible cut as a result. My prototype copy didn’t come with a box so I can’t comment on that, but the gameplay itself was so good that I can’t wait to see what the final product looks like. I can safely recommend this game to just about anyone, though it would have been nice if it supported up to five players (the size of our gamer household) instead of four.

“Word Domination” is truly a step up from the word games in my collection and for that, it’ll have a permanently reserved space on my gaming shelf.” At the very least, go check this gem out via the Kickstarter link below…you won’t be disappointed!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/word-domination-preview/feed/035956Farce (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/farce-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/farce-preview/#respondTue, 23 Aug 2016 14:09:40 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35937Adult themed card games seem to be making a comeback as of late. Take “Cards Against Humanity”, for example…almost every casual gamer I know (even teenagers who really aren’t supposed to be playing it) seem to know what it is and how to play it. “Farce”, a game that’s coming to Kickstarter in August of 2016, is similar to “Cards Against Humanity” but has quite a unique twist to it. Before I get started, I’d like to thank Game Creator Guy Walker for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about here (including the rules) subject to change. Like “Cards Against Humanity”, this game is not meant to be played by the easily offended, so you kids out there reading this should go do your homework or something.

Firstly, it’s important to explain that there are three types of cards in this game: Words, Fragments, and Connectors. There are a total of 568 cards in “Farce”, which is comparable to “Cards Against Humanity’s” 550. Like “You’ve Been Sentenced”, you’ll be using different cards to form a sentence…one that is more than likely going to sound both silly and dirty at the same time. To set up the game, the three card types are shuffled into their own separate decks. Once you do that, you’re ready to play! Yes, it’s that easy.

The game is broken up over a series of rounds, with the role of the dealer moving clockwise around the table each round. At the beginning of each round, each player is dealt 3 Word cards, 6 Fragment cards, and 3 Connector cards (12 in all). After receiving and looking at their cards, players may discard up to two cards to receive that many from the appropriate deck (like in “Poker”). If you discard two Fragment cards, for example, then you’d take two Fragment cards from the Fragment deck.

Players then have about two minutes to combine their cards in any way they wish to form a sentence. Players need not use every card, nor do they need to use at least one type of each of the three cards. Some cards have the text “You may use any ONE of the below”, meaning that players will choose only one of the bullet points listed on the card to form part of their sentence. The goal is to create the funniest sentence, regardless of its length. Each player reads their sentence aloud and the person who receives the most laughs is awarded a point. Ties result in each of the tied players receiving a point.

At the end of a round after points are awarded, players discard all of their cards and start a new round with a fresh hand of 12 cards. As mentioned earlier, the role of the dealer shifts clockwise with every new round. I couldn’t find an end of game point limit in the print-and-play file I was given, but honestly this game doesn’t need one…play until you feel like stopping like you would in “Apples to Apples” or the aforementioned “Cards Against Humanity”.

Some examples found in the PDF print-and-play include:

“Japanese tourists still hope to see Narnia whenever they open a wardrobe”

and

“The elephant in the room is slutty and proud”

As you can see from the above examples and card contents, it’s very easy for minds to go south shortly after diving into the game. There are somewhat clean sentences one can form, though I find that most winners of “Cards Against Humanity” and by extension, “Farce”, are the people who are the dirtiest minded. After all, people who want a clean game similar to this can play “Apples to Apples” or “You’ve Been Sentenced”.

While many variations of “Apples to Apples” and “Cards Against Humanity” exist, “Farce” gives the player a bit more options when thinking about their answer. There’s also no single “judge” from round to round…instead you’re graded so to speak by everyone in your group, every single time. This means no figuring out how to tickle one particular person’s funny bone, making “Farce” a smidge more social in nature.

If you enjoy games like “Cards Against Humanity” but have blown through the deck so many times that you have the cards memorized by heart, then give “Farce” a spin. You’ll probably find that forming dirty sentences never felt so good.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/farce-preview/feed/035937Dead Man’s Drawhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dead-mans-draw/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dead-mans-draw/#respondSat, 20 Aug 2016 17:29:34 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36011Having played this on the PC a bunch of times (“Dead Man’s Draw” was originally a video game first), I was curious to see what all came in the boxed version. To my surprise, I discovered variants, traits, and other goodies that allowed me to customize the game any way I wanted to. You can check out my review of the board game and/or check out my game sessions on the PC in the videos below.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dead-mans-draw/feed/036011Elementoshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/elementos/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/elementos/#respondTue, 16 Aug 2016 19:48:14 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=36006“Elementos”, the fresh maker…no, that’s not right. Don’t get old kids, it’s easy to get confused. Luckily, you won’t be confused by the rules of this particularly easy to play game. In “Elementos”, two players will be attempting to use the elements to get their pawn over to the other side of the board. These elements come in the form of pieces and while they all have the same movement rules, they have a rock-paper-scissors relationship. To make things more interesting, they can be flipped to reveal a completely different element than what they were before. I’ve opted to do a video review for this one, but spoiler: “Elementos” is fun for just about any couple, seeing as how it’s quick to both learn and play. Check out the video below for a rules overview and a quick look at my final thoughts.

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Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/elementos/feed/036006PRESS RELEASE: “Final Act” Seeking Support on Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-final-act-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-final-act-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#commentsThu, 11 Aug 2016 16:56:49 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35994War games are popular for a reason…it’s not like you can drive your very own Sherman down your local highway every day (if you can and it’s legal, good on you). “Final Act”, a game that has a little over two weeks to go on Kickstarter (as of the date of this posting), is looking for your help to reach its goal. “Final Act” promises to be streamlined and easy to play, but just as intense and strategic.

The folks over at Tyto Games offered the following:

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Designed by a Real Tank Commander–But Made for Fun

Last year, the Tyto Games folks released their first game– Elementos– which gave a very new look to the old “rock-paper-scissors” kind of conflict, and has been received wonderfully well. Tyto has just recently launched a kickstarter for their second game–“Final Act.” This is a game of abstract tank combat, designed by an actual tank commander. Final Act uses dials to easily program simultaneous movement, and packs a lot of “feel” into a system that is quick to get into.

Each player commands 7 tanks (all wooden pieces!) and wants to either eliminate the opposition or get a tank to the other side of the map. Games take about an hour. Since terrain and tank set-up is variable, no two games are likely to be alike. The rules are downloadable on the project page.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-final-act-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/235994Flipsidehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/flipside/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/flipside/#respondSun, 07 Aug 2016 00:27:18 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35972Want to challenge your vocabulary skills but don’t feel like playing an hour plus long game of “Scrabble”? “Flipside” may very well be the game you’re looking for. This solo card game only takes twenty minutes to play, challenging players with earning the highest score they can with the help of special one-use abilities that they can use along the way. Special thanks to Steven Aramini from Biggest Little Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. Like my other recent reviews, I’ve opted to do this particular one in video form. It was quicker and easier than writing a 1,000 word article. Hit play below to see how it plays and what I thought, though you can probably guess by the review score that “Flipside” was most certainly above average. I’ll go as far as to say that “Flipside” is probably the best solo card game involving vocabulary that I’ve played to date.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/flipside/feed/035972Alkemia: Destiny’s Recipe (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/alkemia-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/alkemia-preview/#respondThu, 04 Aug 2016 14:45:22 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35903I’ve always had an interest in alchemy, mainly because the term transmuted (pun intended) into what we now know as chemistry. While I was never very good at chemistry, I do enjoy learning about the elements and how they interact with one another. Whether I was watching Bill Nye or some teacher down at the Carnegie Science Center, my eyes were peeled to what was going on. “Alkemia: Destiny’s Recipe”, a game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter sometime in August of 2016, will task players with becoming the Grand Alchemist by saving the land of Alkemia via the synthesizing of the Crest of Creation. Before we begin, I’d like to thank the folks at Kinsoul Studio for reaching out and providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything seen here (including the rules) subject to change.

Alkemia: Destiny’s Recipe: 2-6 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 20 Mins Per Player

“Alkemia: Destiny’s Recipe” is chalk-full of unusual terms, so let me start off by explaining the most important one: “SEED” (Spiritually Enriched Elemental Deposits). Essentially, it’s the game’s currency. You’ll be collecting them by discarding regents and finding them naturally and spending them to activate special tiles called curious sites and for bartering, among other things. SEED can also be used in conjunction with a depleted item to satisfy the ingredient of the Crest recipe.

Confused yet? Don’t worry, I was too at first. Like I said, lots of terms to get a handle on. The main goal of the game is to craft the Crest of Creation. To do that, a player must reveal and satisfy all six of their individual recipes and unlock their artifact. Recipes are automatically revealed as players craft items. Items are crafted via reagents, which can be harvested out in the foraging field. So in other words…gather reagents, craft items, reveal the recipe for the Crest of Creation, make it, unseal your artifact, and win the game. That, in a nutshell, is “Alkemia: Destiny’s Recipe”.

The game is played over a series of rounds (or weeks). Each week consists of three phases:

1. Field Phase – Beginning with the player who has the starting player token, they’ll move their player piece and spend actions in order to interact with the field. This means collecting reagents and interacting with curious sites. Once everyone has had a turn, then the week moves onto phase two.

2. Alchemy Phase – In this phase, all players (at once) craft items using any reagents they may have. Once everyone is finished, play moves onto phase three.

3. Crest Phase – This is essentially a clean-up phase where players perform steps in a particular order. This includes sacrificing reagents or items to craft a Crest recipe, flipping over the Sprout of Endless Possibilities card if you have one, unsealing and flipping your artifact card if you have satisfied all of your base crest ingredients, discarding reagents cards to add SEED to your forge, and turning depleted items upright so that they can be used again next round/week.

Play continues until one player crafts the Crest, winning them the game. Obviously, there’s a bit more to it than that, but those are the highlights.

One thing I didn’t mention was that each player card / character has their own special ability, making it vital that you use it as much as possible to help you craft the Crest and other items you may need. In addition, players will be able to craft unique aspiration items that have very special powers, though can be treated as a regular item in that it can be depleted when used, be sacrificed to satisfy a Crest recipe, and etc. Artifacts are also pretty unique, doesn’t cost anything to use (unless it says otherwise), and doesn’t take up room in your inventory. Your hand size, by the way, is unlimited until the start of your next turn in which case you must discard down to ten.

Moving around the field is also a bit strategic in the sense that each tile has both arrows and numbers. The former tells you which tiles you can move to and the number indicates how many field actions it’ll cost to do so. All players start with 5 actions on their turn, though they’ll roll a D3 and add that value to it to determine their total action count. Gathering on fertile fields will reward you with the appropriate elemental type of reagent cards, based on the tile you’re currently standing on and what color/symbol it contains. You can gather from the same tile three times before it’s exhausted, but you and other players will be allowed to use it after your turn is over. Curious sites require one SEED to use, but offer a wide variety of effects that may assist you in your journey.

Overall, “Alkemia: Destiny’s Recipe” is a pretty neat game. It takes some time to get used to the terms and how gameplay flows, especially while you still have to look up what some of the curious sites actually do and how they behave. I was drawn to the crafting element this game offers and as an added bonus, crafting items can be done in a number of different ways. Since you don’t know what you’ll need to make Crest recipes right off the bat, players may opt to craft what they can as quickly as possible while others might opt to hold onto cards that might help them in the future whilst preventing others from seeing what they’re up to.

Once again, the game will be launching on Kickstarter around August of 2016, so go give it a look (link below) if this game sounds interesting to you!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/alkemia-preview/feed/035903Metal Minds (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/metal-minds-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/metal-minds-preview/#respondMon, 01 Aug 2016 16:01:29 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35816Kal-Purnika…a colonial planet’s name that runs right off the tongue. In this make-believe world, this planet is renowned for its technological advances, specifically the ability to infuse minerals into a person’s DNA for the sake of curing diseases and enhancing various mental functions. Unfortunately, treatment is expensive and in exchange for it, the government requires that the individual work for ten years of servitude as a metal mind agent. Players will be competing to rebuild a power plant…the first to do so gets released from this servitude early. Before we begin, I’d like to thank J.J. Sturgeon for reaching out and providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see featured here (including the rules) subject to change).

Players begin by choosing an agent (yellow card) at random, which gives them a unique special ability. Ironmine agents convert and get more resources, silverminds draw extra cards, and copperminds can create their own rift orbs. In addition to listing a power, these agent cards define a player’s hand limit and line limit. A line limit is simply how many devices you can have in play before you’re forced to draw cards and end your turn. Players also receive a tracker (number side up), a red gem, and a pawn of each color (purple, orange, and green). The red gem tracks your rift orb totals while the pawns track your resources. Players start with no rift orbs but one of each resource. Lastly, players get a hand of four cards from the inventory deck.

The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round consists of one player taking a full turn. A player’s turn is divided into three phases:

1. Action Stage (optional) – Play cards from your hand, use powers from cards in your line (cards played above your tracker), and/or use the power of your agent. If you skip this step, you get to draw a card or get two resources in any combination.

2. Limit Stage – Discard down to your hand and line limits.

3. Draw Stage – Rotate all devices and your agent vertically and draw the top two cards from the inventory deck.

When it comes to cards, there’s a few different types. Blue cards are called maneuvers and are played for a one-time effect after paying the resource cost, if one exists. Devices are either red or green, red being able to be used once per turn until they leave your line while green devices can only be used once. Devices cannot be utilized on the same turn they are added to the line. Once again, they have a resource costs that must be observed.

Ultimately, your goal is to have the most rift orbs when the game is over. To do that, you’ll be earning and paying resources to play and activate cards/powers respectively. A rift maker device, for example, requires the user to pay one yellow resource to create an orb using an action during phase one. The game ending condition is met whenever one player has at least eight orbs, in which that round is played out so that everyone has an equal number of turns. Whoever has the most orbs (max 10), wins the game!

“Metal Minds” was received well in our household. The overall premise is fairly simple in that you’re collecting resources to activate powers that ultimately allow you to complete your goals. With that said, there’s a bit of strategy involved. You might have a great card in your hand that you can’t play yet, so you might be tempted to skip a few action phases to gain the resources you need to play it. On the other hand, some card effects allow players to scrap other players’ cards so leaving a high-valued card out on your line all by its lonesome is a risky business. There’s also discard effects, so it’s advised that you don’t wait too long to play a card you really want from your hand. It comes down to timing really and how to best utilize your turns so that your plan flows smoothly with the least amount of risk for the most gain.

I also appreciate the different agent powers as they each will change how you decide to run things. One character’s power might be heavily used throughout the game while others might require you to wait to use them until the current situation calls for it. In other words, some powers are no-brainer buffs while others require a bit more finesse and tactical planning. Depending on who you get, you may end up changing up your strategy and play style completely.

“Metal Minds” hits that sweet spot in terms of being easy to play but yet still requires some thought. I personally love those kinds of games as they can be played “after homework” and “before bed”, two dad terms you’ll be very familiar with if you happen to be a parent. While my copy was a prototype, I felt that the art was pretty well done. I can’t wait to see what the final production copy will end up looking like. Vinnie Jr., my regular sidekick when it comes to reviewing games, really enjoyed this one too and understood the rules almost immediately. As such, I think “Metal Minds” would be an excellent addition to any family’s collection, though it would be even more awesome if it supported up to five players instead of four.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/metal-minds-preview/feed/035816Bureaunauts (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/bureaunauts-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/bureaunauts-preview/#respondSat, 30 Jul 2016 18:14:21 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35812Filing Paperwork, earning and spending the Almighty Photon, dealing with hazardous Solar Jellies, and planning out your fiscal periods is just all in a day’s work in “Bureaunauts”, a game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter early August of 2016. In short, you’ll be competing with other players to complete career goals in order to gain votes across the five department heads. Before we go any further, I’d like to thank Allison Markello from Fox and Ox Creations, LLC for reaching out and providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are a work in progress and not reflective of the final product, making everything featured here (including the rules) subject to change.

Bureaunauts: 2-6 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 45 Minutes

Bureaunauts is not some dry game about space politics, so let’s clear the air first and foremost. It’s a game about discovery as you explore the cruel vastness of space. The border cards 1-10 and A-H will form the outsides of your grid, giving each point in space a specific coordinate (like in “Battleship”). When setting up the game, players will seed both solar system and space cards across this grid, face-down, so that no one knows who will discover what where. As players find space pirates and relics, they’ll replace them with open space cards after resolving them.

Each turn represents a fiscal period, which is broken up into a number of steps:

1. Solar Jellies move and spawn.

2. Players receive Almighty Photons based on the amount listed on their budget tracker. Budgets increase as players complete their career goals.

3. File paperwork (pay one Almighty Photon to do an action or move). Players who don’t file paperwork cannot participate again in this fiscal period.

4. Players who paid a photon in step 3 choose coordinates or ** (perform action) on their dual dials, then reveal them simultaneously.

5. Players repeat steps 3 and 4 until all players run out of almighty photons (currency) or choose not to file paperwork.

Turns continue until one player has completed all five of their career goals (assigned to them during setup), which in turn initiates a vote. The player with the most votes, wins the game!

I know what you’re thinking…”Solar Jellies? Paperwork? Almighty Photons? What does all that mean?”

In a word, Solar Jellies are bad. They’re the “scourge of Bureaunauts everywhere”, as the manual describes them. One jelly will spawn for each player in the game every turn, which occurs after any existing Jellies move. There’s a Jelly Activity deck to determine in which direction they move. Jellies can even increase in level by combining should they spawn on onto a space already occupied by a Jelly or moves/spawns onto a solar system space. You can destroy Jellies by leveling up your own spaceship and landing on jellies whose level is lower than yours. You can also pay Almighty Photons to temporarily increase your level. Once a Jelly is defeated, you’ll advance your Jelly Tracker on your player board appropriately.

It’s easy to get sucked into slaying these nasty things, but completing career goals by doing various tasks will give you the edge you’ll need to get those votes. Every player has five career goals and they MUST be completed in order. Don’t worry, players will be able to choose the order during setup and can re-arrange them later via the “goal adjustment” action. When a goal is completed, players can place their color’s influence cards into the appropriate department head stack(s). Getting as much influence into these department head stacks is imperative, as votes are decided via a random shuffling/draw of each of the five decks at the end of the game. A player who gets 3/5 votes automatically wins via a hard vote, while those who only get two win a soft majority and need two to win (another voting round occurs).

In the meantime, moving around the galaxy can be quite dangerous (or rewarding, if you’re lucky). Players can run into space pirates which can be defeated in the same way as the Jellies…by upgrading your spaceship so that your level is higher than your opposition. Finding and defeating them can be a good thing though, as they can help you complete Law & Order career goals. Relics can be discovered to help you complete the Relic Hunter career goals without the need for all that messy combat. Space junk can help you upgrade your ship up to level 4 (no further). The Dark Star and +X Photons will give you a nice monetary boost to help you move and take more actions. Solar Systems have their own similar effects and include things like pirate outposts, relics, and dreaded Jelly swarms.

There’s a good bit of the rules that I didn’t cover, but hopefully the above will help give you an idea as to what you’re in for should you decide to support the game. I personally enjoyed this one, as it reminded me a bit of “Star Trek” (playable in BASIC on older PCs & released in 1971) to where you went around a grid hunting for Klingons. Only here, you’re actually competing with others to do a whole heck of a lot more. There’s some luck involved as you never know what you’re getting into when you land on an unexplored space. It could be that relic you need to complete your career goal, or it could be a nasty pirate waiting to damage your ship.

I really liked the voting system at the game’s end, though I can see where some may have a problem with it. Some abstract gamers don’t like it when things are left to chance as it’s very possible to have 4 out of 5 influence cards in one of the five decks and still lose the vote due to the random draw. I find that it serves to keep things casual and give losing players a chance to still win, even if their chances aren’t all that great. The rulebook is about 20+ pages so I recommend that you have an experienced gamer on hand to read through it to teach any casual gamers in your family the basics. Taken as a whole, everything can seem a bit overwhelming at first. If experienced gamers keep newcomers focused on completing goals and upgrading their ships, then you shouldn’t have a problem.

Editor’s Note: I was told after the fact that they are reworking the rulebook and managed to get the word count down by 40% on just the first pass. The expected length of the rulebook is to be 12-16 pages, though this information is subject to change.

Well, what are you waiting for? If you’re a sci-fi nerd like me, then head on over to the game’s Kickstarter page and take a look. “Bureaunauts” isn’t just space politics, it’s a sci-fi adventure waiting to be discovered.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/bureaunauts-preview/feed/035812Gnosis Conflict (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/gnosis-conflict-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/gnosis-conflict-preview/#respondTue, 26 Jul 2016 16:29:58 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35725In my experience, a lot of war games I come across tend to be rather complicated. Some even take over two hours to play and to be fair, I’ve seen folks at my local game shop play these kinds of games without batting an eye. “Star Wars: X-Wing” is one of the rare few that I have gotten into that offers a ton of content but takes a while to fully understand. “Gnosis Conflict”, a 2-3 player strategy game that will be launching on Kickstarter in July 2016, aims to keep things relatively simple while offering hardcore strategy vets something to think about. I’d like to thank Anthony Gallo from Hitmouse Productions for providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see and read about here subject to change.

Before players begin, they’ll have to decide on a game mode: King of the Hill (default mode), Arena, or Capture the Flag. In the default King of the Hill mode, players gain one point on the combat tracker at the end of each round for every piece of salvage their faction controls. The first player to ten points wins. In arena, players earn points for kills with the number of points being equal to the unit point cost of the unit killed. Capture the Flag requires players to carry four pieces of salvage back to their cloning facility to win. I like the fact that there are different game modes available, allowing players to switch off when they feel they need a break from any particular one.

Setting up the game is relatively simple in that players select their faction and agree on a game type, secretly creating an army worth a total of eight points (using only one copy of any unit). Players create an enhancement deck of five cards coming from both their faction deck and the generic supply, shuffle them up, and draw one for their opening hand. Terrain plates are randomly dealt to form the board…in a two player game, 4 are used in a 2×2 pattern whereas 6 are used in a 2×3 pattern with three players. Players take turns placing these tiles together via round order (determined by a die roll). After the board is ready, each player in round order places their cloning facility within accordance to specific placement rules. Units are then placed on their respective facilities.

The game itself is played over a series of rounds with each round consisting of players taking multiple turns. The turn sequence includes: activating a unit not yet activated this turn, taking a free action, moving, using an ability, and resolve. Once the player is done doing these actions with their chosen unit, play passes to the next player. When all units have been activated, the round ends. There’s obviously a bit more to it than that, but that’s the general flow of play.

Rather than detail each and every part of a player’s action (which will admittedly take a while), I’d like to hi-lite some of the things I felt to be most relevant. For example, each unit has its own unique move rating and the terrain will affect how many move points a unit spends to traverse there. Some terrain, like dangerous terrain, cause the unit to suffer damage while others offer defensive and range bonuses. Other terrain can’t be traversed altogether and even block line of sight preventing attacks that would normally be viable. As any war game vet will tell you, it’s all about location, location, location!

Combat is straight forward, with the attacker rolling a D10 then adding any accuracy bonuses. If the total meets or exceeds the defense rating on the target, damage is applied. Some attacks cause special damage effect that players will need to pay attention to. Killed units do respawn at the cloning facility over time, though they lose any tokens, elite status, or enhancement cards they may have. Speaking of cloning facility, players may end their activation on their own cloning facility to heal two points of damage.

Salvage plays a big part in this game too. There are spaces marked on the map that represent pieces of alien technology that are just waiting to be reclaimed by a player. When trying to activate one, the player will roll a D10 and using the chart in the manual, resolve the effect. Some effects cause damage while others allow the player to draw an enhancement card, cause the unit to go elite, or gain defense/accuracy/movement bonuses. No matter which modes you play, these salvage pieces will be crucial to helping you win the game.

“Gnosis Conflict” has a lot going for it. Yes, it does require a bit of thinking so I wouldn’t call it an entry-level war game, what with all the card effects and rules regarding tokens, terrain, and etc. Luckily, you can remove some of these features to make your life easier, if you so choose. It’s your “toy” after all, so customize your play experience the way you want to. The manual does include a suggested setup for your first game, which is nice. All in all, “Gnosis Conflict” is one project you’ll want to follow whether you’re a newcomer or a seasoned vet to the strategy/war-game genre.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/gnosis-conflict-preview/feed/035725Vikings on Boardhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/vikings-on-board/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/vikings-on-board/#respondTue, 19 Jul 2016 20:44:33 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35900Blue Orange Games has a reputation of making some pretty darned fine family-friendly games and it’s a shame that I don’t see them available on the shelves of the stores that I regularly frequent. They’re mostly geared towards kids (like in the case of “Dr. Eureka” and “Fast Flip“, but on occasion they cater to adults to (like in “New York 1901“). “Vikings on Board” seems to attract the attention of both parties as it is easy to play, kid-friendly, and fairly strategic in a “worker placement / area control” kind of way. I opted to do a video review in place of a written one, so go check it out below. Special thanks to Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Vikings on Board: 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes

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Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/vikings-on-board/feed/035900The Cohorthttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-cohort/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-cohort/#respondFri, 15 Jul 2016 00:45:36 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35896Think YOU have what it takes to form Cohorts ranging from catapults to legionaries? Well, you can most certainly give it a spin in “The Cohort”, which is coming to Kickstarter sometime in September of 2016. Normally I’d do a preview for something like this, but I was told by MAGE Company (the folks who sent me the game) that my press copy was representative of the final product. On that note, thanks again MAGE Company! I outlined the gameplay and my thoughts in the below video, but also wrote a quick review for those who want the skinny in about a minute or less.

The Cohort: 2-6 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 15-30 Minutes

The Review

Frankly, “The Cohort” isn’t a bad family-friendly game, which is exactly what MAGE Company was going for here. However, the execution leaves much to be desired. The box is much bigger than it needs to be and there’s no insert, meaning that the game’s components (cards) will get all messed up while the box is closed and moved around. The least they could have done is included some baggies or rubber bands to help keep the cards in place. The manual also makes no sense, with the setup and components list on the very back page and the rest of the card effects in the middle. Usually the components listing and setup can be found on the first few pages or right after the cover page.

Gameplay was fairly interesting, with a heavy focus being placed on whether or not you feel like taking light or heavy risks. You see, the object of the game is to create sets of cards, but each set you start (called a cohort) has a negative impact on you in some way. Laying down cards and starting multiple sets at once will give you flexibility, but will have a lot a negative consequences. On the other hand, you can opt to focus on keeping one set in play at a time to minimize the damage but it’ll take longer to complete you three sets/cohorts needed to win the game.

While certainly casual enough, this game didn’t strike me as special in any way. I’d really only recommend this one to those who want a quick card game fix as it plays relatively quickly. “The Cohort” isn’t bad, but it’s not great either.

Final Verdict: 5/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-cohort/feed/035896Carrotiahttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/carrotia/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/carrotia/#respondTue, 12 Jul 2016 18:32:17 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35890MAGE Company has released some pretty moderate to heavy games over the past few years, but their recent trend seems to be focused on families and younger kids. I’m not complaining mind you…some of my favorite games are the ones that are very easy to play but still require a little bit of thought. In “Carrotia”, players will be teaming up to gather as many carrots as they can over the course of three rounds. What’s more, players will be building the maze/playing field whilst under the pressure of a time limit. Of course, birds controlled via die roll will be messing with you at almost every turn. Special thanks to the folks at MAGE Company for providing me with a press copy for review purposes. While the game is scheduled to hit Kickstarter in August 2016, I was told that my copy was representative of the final product.

Carrotia: 1-6 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Editor’s Note: I opted to overview gameplay in the video featured at the end of this review.

The Review

As I stated in my video review, the only real issue I have with this game is how disorganized the manual is. In a word, it’s a mess. Some parts of the manual should be “over here” and other parts of the manual should be “over there”. For such a casual and easy to play game, it boggles my mind on how a manual could be bungled this badly.

The rest of it, like the gameplay and player interaction, wasn’t bad. “Carrotia” is certainly casual enough to appeal to gamers of any age. The time limit isn’t one of my favorite features…I hate feeling rushed in any game I play. With that said, feel free to use your own timer rules or eliminate it altogether. In fact, feel free to eliminate the birds too if you find their rules and presence to be confusing or too cumbersome, respectively.

I like how each of the players get a rabbit with special abilities and how they have to work together to beat the designated score over three rounds. I also like how the maze will change over the three rounds based on the entry or exit points. You might plan to create open-ended paths toward the bottom of the grid only to draw a quest card the wants you to escape to the side, making you have to swap out existing tiles.

Overall. “Carrotia” is an excellent cooperative game but falls short in a lot of areas. If you’re having a hard time finding a family-friendly co-op game that you haven’t played, then you MAY want to check this out. Otherwise, give it a pass.

Final Verdict: 5/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/carrotia/feed/035890Star Trek Panichttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/star-trek-panic/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/star-trek-panic/#respondThu, 07 Jul 2016 23:56:37 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35873“Castle Panic” has and always will be one of our favorite games to play, mainly because it’s co-op and so simple to learn. Of course, who could say no to slaying goblins and the like as they come swarming toward your castle? There’s been other variations upon that theme…”Dead Panic” and “Munchkin Panic” being the two that I own. “Star Trek Panic”, I’m pleased to say, is an awesome addition to this running trend. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank the folks at USAopoly for sending me a press copy for review purposes.

Editor’s Note: The details of how the game is played can be found in the video featured below.

The Review

“Star Trek Panic” is by far my favorite of the bunch. It improves upon the original “Castle Panic” in a number of ways without making it incredibly complicated. For example, the main idea of “Star Trek Panic” is to complete five missions and then wipe the remaining threats from the board in order to win. Yes, you read that right…missions. Missions are labeled after particular episodes like “The Deadly Years” and “Immunity Syndrome” and require players to commit cards to these missions before the timer/counter hits zero. Since cards can only be used for its primary function (like firing on an enemy vessel) or being committed to a mission, players will be forced to choose what to play and when depending on the situation.

Another cool feature is the addition of firing arcs. Some cards allow the Enterprise to fire out the rear or sides, while others only out of the front. To help players out, the game allows you to rotate the Enterprise and change its orientation. Further, you can “move forward”, causing the threats and other tokens in front of the Enterprise to move up a space while the rest remain as they are. This can be useful in getting to a mission objective or starbase token more quickly, among other things.

The way threats work took some getting used to. You see, enemies in “Castle Panic” only did damage to your walls once they were at short-range and moved up. Here, enemies can attack at ANY range. Once in short-range they become boarders and if your shields are down, they’ll do damage to your hull based on their current defense value. Luckily, players can play security team cards and the like to minimize this damage. Players can also choose between unique characters (Kirk, Spock, etc.) to field some pretty awesome abilities.

The game, by default, is fairly difficult. However, one can get around that by doing away with the missions and just shooting for exhausting the bag of threat tokens (like in “Castle Panic”). You can also aim to complete three missions instead of five and while the manual doesn’t suggest it, you could increase hand limits by one or two to give you more options. I’ve also been known to skip the “draw monsters/threats” phase every other turn or so to make things more casual. Or, opt to play as two characters instead of one. Some may see this as cheating, but I for one feel that it’s okay to tweak the rules to make it fun for your group. It’s YOUR game, after all.

“Star Trek Panic” fires its phasers in true Trek fashion and then some. I can easily recommend this for “Panic” fans, though especially so if you’re a Trekker/Trekkie like me.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/star-trek-panic/feed/035873The Forevergonehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-forevergone/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-forevergone/#respondMon, 04 Jul 2016 21:27:29 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35717Ever wanted to be a psychic warrior who can wield powerful thoughts? Of course you have, what kind of silly question is that?! “The Forevergone”, a two to four player card game, puts players in the shoes of such a warrior who are trying to eliminate their competition once and for all. To do that, they’ll be trying to force their opponents’ cards into a discard pile known as, “The Void”. Before I get into specifics, I’d like to thank Game Designer Rob Richmond for reaching out and providing me with a press copy for review purposes. The game will be launching on Kickstarter on July 12th of 2016, however I’m told that my copy was the true and final version which is why I’m opting for a review instead of a preview. The game can actually be purchased now via The Game Crafter, if you like what you see in this article.

The Forevergone: 2-4 Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Firstly, players will separate the cards into five separate piles by color. Each color represents a specific discipline. Once that’s done, players will choose two colors…one as their primary and one as their secondary, to form their build. Players use ALL of the cards from their primary discipline, but remove all of the level III cards from their secondary discipline. Once that’s done, each player’s set of cards are shuffled together to form their own individual face-down draw deck known as “The Ether”. Players draw six cards from their deck to form their starting hand.

The game itself is played over turns, with each player completing a series of phases on their turn. These phases are:

1. Opening: Deactivate any tech the player wishes.

2. Draw: On the player’s first turn, they draw one card. On the player’s second turn, they draw two cards. Every turn thereafter, the player draws three. When you’ve drawn the last card from your draw pile, you’ll reshuffle the cards from your positive discard pile known as “The Memory” to form a new draw pile. However, the top two cards from this new pile are placed into a negative discard pile known as, “The Void”.

3. Activation: The player may choose a power or tech to activate. To activate a card, they’ll play it down in front of them and discard a number of cards from their hand equal to the cost shown on the played card (the roman numeral on the top right corner). The discarded cards go the memory. Techs remain face up where it remains persistent until removed.

4. Reactions: Any player may choose to play a reaction to activate in response to the active player’s card. All cards played in this way are stacked on top of each other as they are played.

5. Resolution: All cards played resolve from the top down until all actions are complete. Powers and reactions which resolved go into the owner’s “Memory” pile. All active techs stay face up on the table. Any thoughts/cards that cancel activation go to the owner’s void pile.

6. Additional Activation: The player may return to step three if they have another card they’d like to play this turn.

7. Closing: A player has at least fifteen cards in their void at this point, they are eliminated. If there is no victor, then the activate player discards their hand down to eight cards…any cards discarded go to the void. If this would cause them to reach or exceed their void limit, they are eliminated.

Play continues until only one player is left standing, in which case they become the winner!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

At first glance, this game seemed very similar to “Magic: The Gathering” (which is not necessarily a bad thing). For example, both games feature five unique colored card types that tend to favor a specific strategy or play style. With that said, “The Forevergone” incorporates a lot of cool, unique mechanics that makes it stand out on its own. The idea of using the second discard pile as a game ending condition, for example, saves me from having to count hit points every time there’s a confrontation.

While “Magic: The Gathering” lets you use as many colors as you want, you’re limited to having to use two colors in “The Forevergone” (sort of like in “Wiz-War”). Taking away the ability to customize your build any way you want to is no doubt a step backward when comparing the two games and fans of “Magic: The Gathering” will probably see it that way. What makes this acceptable to me however is that you have a primary and secondary discipline in which you discard power level III cards from the latter. This forces players to specialize a bit and honestly, I kind of like this approach as it makes the game a bit more streamlined and easy to play.

What’s also nice is that I don’t have to worry about fat packs and buying a new core set every year…everything I need comes straight out of the box, day one. I can’t tell you how much I’ve dropped on “Star Wars: The Card Game”, for example. As such, “The Forevergone” is a money-saver all things considered, despite the $25.00 price tag. Those who know me have come to understand my penny-pinching preferences…I would have pegged this one to be around $15-$20, though $25 (per The Game Crafter as of 5/18/16) doesn’t irk me as much as some of the other price tags that I’ve come across have.

In conclusion, I’d most definitely give this one a pass and then some. The gameplay was satisfying and it was fun trying out different combinations…like how purple/blue was different than blue/purple (those level III cards can sometimes make the difference). If you enjoy “Magic: The Gathering” but also enjoy lighter variants of it, then I can easily recommend this one to you had you asked. Some expansions for the five different colors would indeed be nice to see at some point so that gameplay doesn’t become too predictable.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-forevergone/feed/035717Capo dei Capihttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/capo-dei-capi/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/capo-dei-capi/#respondSun, 03 Jul 2016 23:31:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35857“Capo dei Capi” is probably one of the more complicated push-your-luck themed games I’ve ever had the fortune of playing. It’s not as simple as rolling dice or flipping cards until you’re ready to stop. Rather, you and another player will be fighting for control over various boards that gain value throughout the game. Some will be worthless while others will generate a good bit of value cubes which in turn give you victory points at the end of the game should you win the board.

It’s all outlined in my video review below. Go have a look!

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/capo-dei-capi/feed/035857Cosmic Runhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cosmic-run/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cosmic-run/#respondSat, 02 Jul 2016 23:38:18 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35850Ever hear of the board game, “Lost Cities“? If you haven’t, you’re missing out. You’re tasked with sending explorers on expeditions but in doing so, you earn negative points until you get far enough to make your journey worth positive points. You’re essentially doing that in “Cosmic Run”, though there are five paths and you’re forced to progress on each lest you have to lose victory points because you neglected advancing on a particular one when it scores. You can also hire aliens and acquire crystals, the former of which grants you the use of special abilities. Both also help with your VP total at the end. It’s all outlined neatly in my video review below. Special thanks to Stephen Finn from Doctor Finn’s Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Cosmic Run: 1-4 Players, Ages 14+, Average play Time = 30 Minutes

To sum up my thoughts, I was really impressed with this one. While I’m saddened that it didn’t support up to five players (I have a family of five), I do think the solo and co-op modes give the game a much-needed boost to replayability. The art was good and the rules were easy to learn. The hardest part will be getting used to the special actions you can use on the alien and personal tech cards, but the manual explains what each one does. I enjoyed this one overall and can’t wait to see which planets get discovered and which ones blow up the next time we play. The game sells for about $35 (as of 7/2/16) via Amazon (search the widget in the sidebar) and the official website.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cosmic-run/feed/035850The Institute for Magical Artshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-institute-for-magical-arts/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-institute-for-magical-arts/#respondSat, 02 Jul 2016 23:18:12 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35843I’m not exactly sure why, but the image of Harry Potter pops into my head every time I see this game on my shelf. I suppose that’s because “The Institute for Magical Arts” is all about power stones, portals, ethereal realms, and other goodies you’d expect from magic-themed games. This particular one is for two players and tasks each with getting victory points by acquiring both magical characters and tools via the process of bidding via power stones. When I say bidding, I don’t mean an auction…rather, you’re putting power stones on the cards you want, based on the dice you roll. There’s a lot of content that intertwines itself into a fully fledged game, so it’s best if you watch my video review below to get the full picture. Special thanks to Stephen Finn from Doctor Finn’s Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

The Institute for Magical Arts: 2 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

For those who can’t wait to watch the video, I’ll come right out and say that this is one two-player game that you won’t want to pass on, especially if you enjoy moderately strategic games. It’s one heck of a mind game too, especially when you’re assigning actions to dice at the same time as your opponent…only, you don’t know what actions your opponent is taking until you both reveal them at the same time. The art and overall gameplay is pretty good, though I had a tough time fitting everything back into the box after the fact. The price is $29.99 on Amazon (use the search tool off to the right) and $26.95 on the official website as of 7/2/2016…this is fair considering the amount of components you’re getting inside the box. All in all, this one’s a keeper.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-institute-for-magical-arts/feed/035843The Butterfly Gardenhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-butterfly-garden/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-butterfly-garden/#respondSat, 02 Jul 2016 15:19:03 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35833Your first instinct when reading the title of this game may be to automatically assume that it’s a game geared toward kids. I’m here to tell you to put those assumptions aside because it’s accessible to all members of the household and is fairly strategic to boot, though not so much as to drive away casual gamers. The general idea is to play butterfly cards which eventually end up in your jar. Using the butterflies in your jar, you’ll be trying to acquire delivery cards for VPs. The first player to reach the VP goal (based on the number of players) will signal that the round should play out and the game ends. There’s obviously a bit more to it than that, so I’ve thrown together a quick video that outlines game play and my general thoughts. Special thanks to Stephen Finn from Doctor Finn’s Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

The Butterfly Garden: 2-6 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20-40 Minutes

In short, “The Butterfly Garden” is a fantastic game that supports up to six players, meaning that it’ll suit almost any family size. I love how players choose a card in secret, flip them, and then take turns in order based on the number they played from lowest to highest. Lower cards are generally weaker and don’t have a lot of butterflies on them, but they almost guarantee that you’ll have first dibs on choosing a new butterfly card from the pool and to choose a delivery card, assuming you meet the requirements. Go check out my video for more information. The game’s Kickstarter page (the campaign of which was successfully funded) shows that estimated delivery is September 2016.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-butterfly-garden/feed/035833Sushi Go Party!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/sushi-go-party/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/sushi-go-party/#respondWed, 29 Jun 2016 23:11:52 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35806“Sushi Go!” is one heck of a card game, seeing as how it’s both easy and fun all at the same time. “Sushi Go Party!” is like “Sushi Go! 2.0” in that it introduces a lot more content but maintains the same general flow of play. For those of you unfamiliar with “Sushi Go!”, it’s essentially a pass-and-play set collecting game. You shuffle a deck of cards and each player is dealt a random hand. You then choose one to play and pass the rest of your hand to your left. Using the cards you’ve received from the person on your right, you’ll again choose a card to play and pass the hand off. When everyone is out of cards the round ends and points are tallied. Instead of using the same deck of cards every time, “Sushi Go Party!” lets players customize their own loadout from a number of new (and old) card types.

I took the liberty of recording a video review so that I wouldn’t have to type everything out, but I will summarize my feelings by saying that you should most certainly buy this game. It supports up to eight players and with the new cards and customization options, “Sushi Go Party!” is a different game every time you play. Gamewright (the publisher and the folks who sent me this review copy) has done it again!

Final Verdict: 10/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/sushi-go-party/feed/035806Battle Linehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/battle-line/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/battle-line/#respondWed, 29 Jun 2016 12:05:14 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35801On an impulse buy, I picked up “Battle Line” for under twenty bucks on Amazon (search the Amazon widget on the right to find it) and boy, I’m glad I did. Essentially, you and one other player are battling for control of pawns. On each pawn, you can assign a total of three cards. The better hand (straight flush, 3 of a kind, flush, straight, etc.) on any particular pawn allows it to be controlled by that player. The aim is to capture three pawns in a row or five in all.

I’ll let the below video do the talking for me.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/battle-line/feed/035801Duel Mazehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/duel-maze/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/duel-maze/#respondSat, 25 Jun 2016 01:45:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35792Mazes have a habit of making me feel like an idiot. I mean, I consider my self fairly intelligent…but put me into a hedge maze and you won’t see me again for another three years. Hell, just drop me off in the woods somewhere…my sense of direction is THAT bad. “Duel Maze” doesn’t make me feel like an idiot though…quite the contrary. It’s a two player game that tasks players with moving their dice to their colored goal markers and the first to three points, wins! Before we begin, I’d like to thank the folks at Player4 for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Duel Maze: 2 Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes

Review

Editor’s Note: Rather than type out the components, game setup, and how the game plays here, I took the liberty of recording a video outlining most/all of the game’s features. It’s easier for me to do it this way as I have been very busy as of late both personally and professionally. You can find it at the bottom of this section.

I’m sure I’d get a few Picard face-palms if I claimed that “Duel Maze” was an a-MAZ-ing game, but that’s exactly what it is. There’s so much strategy for such an easy to play game, it’s ridiculous. There’s strategy in the setup when you’re building the shared maze as you can opt to concentrate on making your opponent’s life a living hell or opt to try and make your paths a bit less messy. Once you get past that part of it, you’ll have to regularly decide what values to assign to your dice as you’re spawning them. You CAN alter an existing die’s value by one on your turn, but that takes up a whole move.

Therein lies the heart of the game and by extension, it’s replayability. The maze will be different each time you play and on top of that, you never know what values your opponent will assign to their dice until he goes to spawn them. I found that I was often responding to what my opponent was doing…that is, spawning a five if they spawned a four just so that if they ever met on the field, my die would win out and theirs would be forced off the board. Then again, I could have easily spawned some ones in the hopes of going around his dice like Speedy Gonzalez. I just have to be careful not to get caught.

The gameplay is there, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There is no box insert, though there rarely is with games I get from “The Game Crafter” from which this game is sold for $26.99 (as of 6/24/16). There’s also nothing on the box indicating the stats…that is, the number of players, the age requirement, the average play time, and etc. I included them in the picture’s caption above, in case you’re curious. Lastly, the board is a bit thin and flimsy. I think the quality could have been much better, though it serves its purpose regardless.

The cards serve as a nice way to mix things up when you least expect it. While not written in the manual, you COULD play without the cards to keep things less random and more like a game of “Chess” (except here, you don’t know what the pieces will be until they spawn). All in all, “Duel Maze” is highly accessible and an easy recommend to players looking to outsmart and outwit each other on the battlefield.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/duel-maze/feed/035792Deadfallhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/deadfall/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/deadfall/#commentsWed, 22 Jun 2016 13:49:12 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35778“Deadfall” sounds like the title of the next James Bond movie, but it’s actually a card game that’s both easy and relatively quick to play. In Deadfall, players will be utilizing a “Pairs” deck…that is, a deck of cards valued 1-10 consisting of one 1, two 2’s, three 3’s, and so on. Players receive 50 coins or chips (not included) to start their pool along with a hand of six cards (five in a seven player game, seven in a two player game). Special thanks to Cassidy Werner from Cheapass Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Deadfall: 2-7 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30-45 Minutes

Review

Editor’s Note: Rather than type out the components, game setup, and how the game plays here, I took the liberty of recording a video outlining most/all of the game’s features. It’s easier for me to do it this way as I have been very busy as of late both personally and professionally. You can find it at the bottom of this section.

Firstly, let’s the gripes out of the way. The manual is a bit vague in some places, like what to do when no one calls anyone out during a round and everyone runs out of cards. I didn’t see a place in the manual to where players draw a card after playing one, but I suspect this would be an interesting alternative. It would extend the game’s length tenfold since you wouldn’t know for sure which cards were “dead” until you started seeing a bunch on the table and the deck running dry. The box is also misleading as it lists the game as having a five-minute play time. I’d have to go with a thirty minute play time with each round taking two to three minutes. Of course, you can modify the end game conditions to fit a quick session. For example, whoever has the most coins/chips after three/five/whatever rounds wins. In effect, YOU can set the play time average.

Issues with the rulebook and its clarity aside, I think “Deadfall” is a pretty neat filler. There’s some bluffing involved, not to mention risk with every card you play. Essentially, you’re aiming to get people to call you when you have a duplicate of a card you’ve played in your hand and/or call on someone when you’re almost certain that no one else has that value in their hands. The opening door card (which everyone plays at the same time) can be a game-ender too, especially if someone plays a “2” and someone else plays a “1”. The player with the “1” goes first and there’s a good chance no one would have the other “2” (though it’s possible). The lower the card you play in general, the less likely that there will be duplicates somewhere else in everyone else’s hand.

For kicks, I recommend playing with a ten card hand with two players, as a seven card hand is over pretty quickly. It also gives players a chance to bluff more as they’ll have more cards at their disposal and less likely to be called with almost every low-card play. Alternatively, folks could be dealt so many cards (face-down) that they can’t play but have knowledge as to what may still be left in other player’s hands. Or, create a public face-up pool that everyone can see. What’s cool about this “Pairs Deck” is that it’s compatible with other games that utilize the same deck. Some cool game variants can be found on the official website (link below) should you want to try something other than the rules associated with “Deadfall”. You can find this particular deck on Amazon for $10 (use the right sidebar search feature to find it) making it a decently priced filler for your collection that offers a ton of value.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/deadfall/feed/135778Inglorious Spacehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/inglorious-space/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/inglorious-space/#respondTue, 21 Jun 2016 18:04:36 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35771Retrogamers like myself can appreciate a good “SHMUP” (Shoot-em-up)…that is, a game where you control some type of craft and progressively head in one direction, shooting enemies as you go. “Inglorious Space” brings this idea to the tabletop and shares a partial likeness to “Life Force” by Konami. Before you impress me with you Konami code knowledge in the comments below…”Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start”. I’d like to quickly thank the folks at Black Table Games for providing me with a press copy for preview purposes.

Editor’s Note: Rather than type out the components, game setup, and how the game plays here, I took the liberty of recording a video outlining most/all of the game’s features. It’s easier for me to do it this way as I have been very busy as of late both personally and professionally. You can find it at the bottom of this section.

“Inglorious Space” is an awesome tabletop game that certainly takes me back to the good ol’ days when angrily spiking your NES controller into the ground was a thing. The graphics and art capture the retro feel while the semi-simplistic gameplay keeps things moving, just like those old-time “SHMUPS” did. It’s a cooperative game at heart as the more players you add, the wider the board becomes…meaning you’ll have to work together to stop them from getting past you. On the other hand, you ARE competing to have the most points when it’s all said and done, so deciding when to ram your opponent into the path of an enemy laser beam can be quite strategic (not to mention risky).

I love the fact that players who are eliminated can still participate by dropping a mine onto the field of play. If they manage to damage a fellow player, they get a point (dead players have their score reduced to zero when they are eliminated). In theory, a dead player can still win assuming they do a lot of mine damage and every player gets eliminated before the two mob decks are defeated by an active player.

My only real gripe with the game is with its fairly hefty price tag of $39.99 (link below). Yes, it’s different and I love that about “Inglorious Space”, but I’m not so sure that the quality and quantity of the components warrant that kind of price tag. $25-$30 would have been a bit more realistic and on par with other games on the market. Generally, I only see a $40-$60 price tag when the game is classified as moderate to heavy Euro and comes with a ton of components.

If you can afford the game however and enjoy semi-cooperative experiences, then give this game a go. Families who want to forgo the competitive part of the game can simply ignore the individual scores and aim to get through the enemy mobs as a team before they’re all eliminated. This means ignoring the ram action too, unless it’s to push another player out of the way of an enemy shot. All in all, everything about “Inglorious Space” presses all of the right buttons (pun intended), making it a worthy addition to my ever-growing board game collection.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/inglorious-space/feed/035771Box of Rockshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/box-of-rocks/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/box-of-rocks/#respondWed, 01 Jun 2016 20:24:28 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35764Are YOU dumber than a box of rocks? Brave enough to find out? Then perhaps you should give “Box of Rocks” a spin, a trivia game that poses questions to where the answer is either 0, 1, or 2. The rocks have notches on them and are shaken up in the box after a question is asked…the number of notches revealed will indicate the game’s answer. Both your group and the game score points along a track for every correct answer and the first to the top, wins! It’s a relatively simple trivia game that, I’m told, will demoing at Gen Con in August 2016 and retailing in early 2017. If you like trivia games and think you’re smarter than a box of rocks, then keep an eye out for this one!

Since the game is so simple to play, I’ve opted to do a quick video outlining its features. Our group had fun with this one overall and I suspect that we won’t be seeing repeats of the questions any time soon. There are one hundred cards with three questions each (answers on the back), so it will take you quite a few playthrus before you go through them all, seeing as how the point track only goes up to “3”. Without knowing what the retail price is going to be it’s hard to pin down a review score, but I think the game does more right than not.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/box-of-rocks/feed/035764Subtle Much? (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/subtle-much-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/subtle-much-preview/#respondTue, 31 May 2016 09:25:49 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35610Have you ever played a simple card game and yearned for that little extra push that would make it slightly more interesting? Want to spice up a conversation by making a game out of it? Look no farther, because “Subtle Much?”, a game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter in May 2016, has you covered. “Subtle Much?” is designed to be played whilst playing another game or performing some other group activity, tasking players with completing secret objectives in order to score points. Before we get into specifics, I’d like to thank Kyle Warwick (the Founder of Moresome Games) for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes aren’t often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about here subject to change.

Subtle Much?: 3+ Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 15 Minutes

Firstly, I want to quickly address the suggested player limit. The manual suggests that the game is for three or more players, but I do not see why you couldn’t play with two. Imagine you and a friend at a restaurant having a conversation while you’re waiting for your food. All you need is a deck of “Subtle Much?” cards handy and you can bluff and deduce your way to victory all the while keeping up to date with your personal lives. While the game is admittedly more interesting as you introduce more players to the mix, I found it totally acceptable to play as a two player game.

I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself here, as I haven’t even touched on how the game is played! Simply put, the deck of cards is shuffled and each player receives one looking at it in secret. Each card has a secret objective and it’ll be up to them to complete it without being called out by the other players. If a player attempts to complete their objective, they have to wait five seconds to give others time to call them out on it before placing it into their score pile. Upon scoring, the player draws another card. However, if another player sees through the attempt they can exclaim “Subtle Much?” and briefly describe what the attempting player was trying to do. If the accuser is for the most part correct, they receive the card and place it into their score pile instead. Three incorrect accusations however automatically awards the accused the ability to place their card into their score pile, so watch carefully!

When the main event…that is, the conversation or game the players are playing is over, they’ll count the number of cards in their score pile and whoever has the most, wins! There are some other rules to consider that make the game fairly interesting…for example, if three incorrect accusations are made and the accused has NOT attempted to complete their objective, the first person to make an accusation gets the card instead. This prevents a player from constantly bluffing and scoring points after three incorrect accusations.

That’s all there is to it, really. “Subtle Much?” is an ingenious way of making any game or activity even more exciting than usual…or perhaps, a boring activity (like waiting for the bus with a friend) a bit more manageable and fun (some of the cards may not work outside of playing another game, though). I personally love the idea and think it would be a good fit with lighter card/strategy games where brain overload wouldn’t occur. Of course, you young whippersnappers out there may very well be able to pull off a complex Euro game while playing this and in fact, I recommend it. The longer the game, the more you can space out your “Subtle Much?” attempts and not be as obvious.

No matter the occasion or activity, “Subtle Much?” will add that extra spice you’ve been looking for. It’ll be launching on Kickstarter in May 2016, so keep an eye out for this one!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/subtle-much-preview/feed/035610Meteor (2.0 Edition)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/meteor-2-0-edition/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/meteor-2-0-edition/#respondFri, 27 May 2016 14:02:31 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34585Five minutes. Five minutes are all you have to save the planet from a meteor storm the likes of our kind has never seen. What’s worse, Bruce Willis is nowhere in sight. All you have are your quick wits and the brains of those around you, with your ultimate goal being to collectively launch enough rockets to blow the giant rocks from space. Before we start mixing the rocket fuel and singeing our eyebrows, I’d like to thank the folks at Mayday Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Meteor: 1-5 Players, Ages 13+, Average Play Times = 5 Minutes

Components

The game includes 5 altitude zone cards, 39 energy cards, 31 rocket cards, 6 technology cards, 26 standard meteor cards, 10 boss meteor cards, 13 power cards, 11 challenge cards, 5 retrofit reference/launch site leader cards, 1 set up card, and five one-minute sand timers. The boss meteor, power, and challenge cards are only used for the advanced game. To keep this review moving, I’ll opt to exclude them from the next section.

Editor’s Note: The 2.0 version I received was the “regular game/big box”. The 2.0 mini box version has no sand timers and contains fewer cards, but retails for less.

Setup & Gameplay

The 26 standard meteor cards are shuffled together to form a meteor deck, with a number being placed face down according to the setup chart in the manual. New players may opt to deal them face-up to see their exact size and traits. In either case, players may “meteor mulligan” if they don’t like the values they see. The altitude cards are placed in a stack in descending order (5 on top) and the timer is placed nearby. Each player gets a site leader card, along with a number of resource cards (based on the number of players) to form their hand. There are no player turns and thus, no starting player.

The object of the game is for players to collectively destroy all of the meteors within five minutes. To do that, players will need to build and launch rockets via launch sites. Launch sites can only accommodate one project at a time (rocket, tech, or retrofit), though they can discard an unfinished project to make room for a new one. Players can only have one rocket individually (unless they’re going for a retrofit), but can queue them up and launch them as a team for the purposes of increasing their attack strength against a single target (or to attack different targets). In addition to using launch sites to build rockets, players can acquire technology and complete sets of rocket or energy cards to draw more resource cards to add to their hands (retrofit). Each project requires a specific set/combination of cards to complete.

When a rocket is launched, the player will pick a target meteor which is then flipped to see its strength. When the damage done by the rocket is equal to the meteor’s strength, it is destroyed. If it’s less, then the rocket has no effect. If it’s greater, then the meteor is destroyed but an overkill occurs. An overkill causes the remaining meteors to move on altitude zone closer to Earth, ending that round immediately.

While players are building and completing projects, one player (known as the timekeeper) will be managing the timers and altitude cards. Essentially, each altitude card is allotted one minute. The game starts with starting a one-minute timer for altitude five. When the one minute runs out, each player draws new resource cards (based on the number of players) and the next altitude number is revealed (with the next one-minute timer being flipped when ready). There’s also no talking until the “communications satellite” tech has been built, though you can start the game with it for an easier time.

The game ends in failure when five minutes are up and there are still meteors in play. Alternatively, if all players destroy the meteors (an overkill on the last meteor at altitude one is OK) before time limit expires, then they’ll win!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I normally don’t like playing timed games because I’m the sort of person that HATES to be rushed. I’m old dammit! Despite this preference, I really enjoyed playing this one. Being able to pause the game whenever you feel like it by putting the timer on hold may sound like cheating to some, but it’s possible for those of you in the same boat as me who just need to slow things down to catch their bearings. If you’re going to do that, my advice is to only do so when you’re looking up rule clarifications as the game is really meant to be played with a ticking clock. The timer adds a sense of tension that you wouldn’t feel otherwise without it. If you find the game to be too rough, you can do two-minute rounds to give yourselves more time to talk strategy.

It can be especially challenging to work together if you opt not to start with the communications satellite already researched as it allows players to communicate with one another. In fact the game recommends you start with this tech your first few times out to make the game a bit easier…I couldn’t agree more. Without verbal communication, you’re reduced to pointing and being much more observant with your eyes. While adding an extra layer of difficulty, not having the communications satellite in the beginning certainly makes things even more interesting. Flipping the meteors face-up during setup is another way to make things easier.

Besides the cooperative aspect, there’s a bit of strategy involved. For example, you don’t know the strength of a particular asteroid until you fire a rocket at it. Will you save up and use your heavy hitters so that you can knock it out on the first try? Or will you forgo the risk of an overkill (which ends the round immediately) and hit it with a weak rocket in order to reveal its strength value? Perhaps you feel that your teammates are fine building the rockets themselves, so concentrating on researching tech and/or allowing the team to draw more cards might be more beneficial. All of these thoughts, dilemmas, and strategies need to be resolved in pretty short order though, so the ability to think quickly on your feet will serve you well here.

As a cooperative experience, “Meteor” delivers. It encourages players to talk things out (when they can) and make snap decisions that could determine success or failure. While the play time is indeed quick (the box says five minutes), it’s more realistic to set aside about twenty minutes to account for set up and clean up. When you tire of the basic game (I doubt I ever will), there are boss meteors, power cards, and challenge cards available to make the game more interesting. If you feel that the price tag is fair and within your budget ($35 for the big box, $25 for the mini box), then you should totally grab this one…especially if you play cooperative games like “Pandemic” on a regular basis. It’s just so darned customizable to suit any level of difficulty you choose, which is a big plus in my book.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/meteor-2-0-edition/feed/034585PWNs (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/pwns-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/pwns-preview/#respondWed, 25 May 2016 12:48:57 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35563I can’t keep up with kids today anymore. I remember a day when being “radical” or “gnarly” was a thing…now I have to ask my family (or sometimes Google) when I come across a word that you’d usually not find in the dictionary. As fortune would have it, I’m a gamer…meaning I know all about being “pwned”. For those of you not of the leetspeak, it’s generally used as a verb in place of the word “owned”. So if you absolutely humiliated someone in a game or event, then you can have said to have “pwned” them. Of course you knew that already, which is “dope” (either that or “cray-cray”, I have to go check Google again).

Today, we’ll be using it as a noun…that is, as a type of soldier unit that can be found in the 2-4 player board game “PWNs”. It’s currently seeking funding through the Kickstarter process though based on what I’ve played, you’re essentially trying to be the last player standing by strategically placing your PWNs around the board and playing cards at just the right moment. Special thanks to Game Creator Ryan Boyle from Awry Games for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes aren’t generally reflective of the final product, meaning that the components and rules seen below are subject to change.

The game comes with 1 PWNs board, 72 cards, 60 terrain tiles, 16 PWNs pieces, 16 character cards, 16 plastic character stands, 16 health tokens, 5 starter tiles, a six-sided die, and a rules booklet. To set up the game, you’ll draft a team of four PWNs of a particular color. You’ll want to take the matching character cards / tokens and place a health counter on “5” for each. Four 4×4 starter tiles are chosen at random and placed on the board. Once done, a player can place their four PWNs anywhere within their starting zone (the spaces of their color). Each player will then receive a number of cards from the shuffled deck, the hand limit being determined by the number of players. For example, in a two player game each player gets five cards. The first player is chosen via a die roll.

The game itself is broken up over a series of rounds. Completing a full round occurs when each player has taken a turn (starting with the first player). This is an important distinction, as some card effects last for a certain number of turns or rounds. A player’s turn is broken up into three phases:

1. Movement – The player may move their PWNs a total of three tiles split any way they want. For example, they can move three of their units one space or one of their units three spaces. PWNs do not move diagonally and take damage when moving through hazards. Moving onto an occupied tile causes a collision. Collisions generally involve both units losing HP and the bumped player moving in the direction bumped, but there are exceptions. Players need not use all three movement points if they don’t want to.

2. Action – The player may play one attack or elemental card, if they have one. If they caused a collision during the movement phase, then this phase is skipped.

3. Health – The player may play a health card to heal one or more PWNs, assuming they have one in their hand.

At the end of their turn a player draws up (or discards down) to their hand limit. The hand limit will change throughout the game as players are eliminated. When a PWN loses all of its health, it is removed from the board. When a player loses all of their PWNs, they are eliminated from the game. The person left standing when the smoke clears, wins!

As you can see, turns are relatively simple to execute. The terrain and card effects, on the other hand, really invite the player to think outside the box. Speaking of cards, there are actually four types (not three as you may have gathered from the above). There are attack, elemental, reaction, and health cards. Reaction cards, the card I didn’t talk about above, are played on someone else’s turn in response to something.

Action cards come in three flavors: Combat, Projectile, and Special. Combat usually signifies hand to hand while projectile usually involves a ranged attack. An attack that doesn’t fit under either category is special. In most case, a card will include a particular format. The green notes section tells you about the card, the pink range section tells you how far & in what direction, the red damage section tells you who is effected & how much HP they lose, and the purple movement section tells you who will move & how far. Some cards ignore this format, in which case they player simply follows the text instructions. Elemental cards are designed to affect both the board terrain and PWNs, while the use of health cards are obvious.

“PWNs” strikes me as the kind of strategic game you can play with someone who wants a strategic experience but not the headaches that usually come with it. I have plenty of Euro games in my collection that can last two hours and require you to be constantly thinking as you play. “PWNs” is light enough to where you can get your fill rather quickly, though the chaotic mess of a four player game is equally as attractive. For beginners, I recommend starting without any special terrain tiles so that you can get used to what the cards do without also factoring in terrain effects. You won’t capture the full experience this way, but it’s a great way to ease casual gamers into the game without overwhelming them with too much information.

I personally liked “PWNs” as it reminds me of those simpler turn-based grid-based army games I play on the PC…only here you can actually see the look on your opponent’s face when you blast their PWN with a water hose and cause a chain of really nasty collisions. Anyone who enjoys light and chaotic war games would do well to check out this project on Kickstarter.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/pwns-preview/feed/035563Dr. Eurekahttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dr-eureka/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dr-eureka/#respondThu, 12 May 2016 00:11:35 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35618I always took great pleasure in watching either a teacher or host perform a science experiment as it usually captivated me every time. My biology teacher once placed an ice cube into two separate beakers of clear liquid…one sank while the other floated. I’m proud to say that I was the first to figure out that one of the beakers didn’t in fact contain pure water but something else, making it less dense than the ice cube. Anywho, the folks at Blue Orange Games were nice enough to send me “Dr. Eureka”, a family board game tasking players to complete experiments with test tubes and differently colored balls. Go check out my video review below to see how the game is played and what I thought. Thanks again Audrey!

Final Verdict: 8/10

Video Review:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dr-eureka/feed/035618Fast Fliphttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/fast-flip/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/fast-flip/#respondThu, 12 May 2016 00:07:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35622I’m absolutely horrible at “Concentration”…you know, the game where you have to flip two tiles and hope they match? Of course, they usually don’t, meaning you have to remember what was where when you do find a particular tile’s twin. Luckily, “Fast Flip” is more of a mind-teaser as opposed to a memory exercise. Here, players will be attempting to earn points by being the first to call out the number of a particular fruit or the fruit that shows up a certain number of times. There’s also two other ways to play, so check out my video review below to see how it all works. Special thanks to Audrey from Blue Orange Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Video Review:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/fast-flip/feed/035622Isle of Trainshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/isle-of-trains/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/isle-of-trains/#respondMon, 02 May 2016 10:37:48 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35341I previously praised “The Great Heartland Hauling Company” for being a “fun game that has the right mix of resource management and economic functionality”. I couldn’t help but me reminded of the aforementioned game while giving “Isle of Trains” a spin. In short, each player will be building and upgrading a train in an attempt to make deliveries and earn victory points. What’s “coal” (see what I did there?) about this game though is that the cards you’ll play have many different uses. Let’s take a look at the rules and show you what I mean.

Isle of Trains: 2-4 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes

Setup & Gameplay

Firstly, each player places a level 1 starter engine in front of them and then five cards are dealt from the deck (the remaining cards, including any extra level 1 engines) to form their starting hand. The six contract cards are arranged primary side up in the center of the table to form the Isle of Trains. The person who last rode a train goes first.

Starting with the first player and moving clockwise, each player takes 2 actions on their turn from the following:

1) Take the top card from the draw pile.

2) Build 1 card from your hand into your playing area by paying its cost in cards to the discard pile. Each card in your hand counts as 1 currency. You’ll need to be mindful of your engine’s weight capacity, as you cannot exceed it. Engines and train cars can be upgraded by replacing them, paying the difference in their costs and discarding the one being replaced. You can also remove cars from your train by discarding them. Trains may only have one caboose and players may only have one building in their play area (which does not connect to their train, obviously).

3) Load 1 card from your hand onto any player’s train car that has available capacity for the type of cargo shown on the right side of that card. Adding to another player’s train car will yield a bonus for helping them out.

4) Deliver cargo cards from your train to the discard pile to claim a contract card or draw two new cards per cargo card discarded. There are two secondary contracts on each contract card and ONE of them has to be completed before the player can claim another contract card. Only one secondary contract (out of the two) can be completed.

Players can use their 2 actions to perform the same action twice, or two different actions. After completing their actions, players discard cards until they reach their hand size limit (default is 5 cards).

The game ends when there are no more cards left to draw (when the discard pile can’t be shuffled to form a new draw deck), or when a player has claimed a certain number of contracts. When either happens, ALL players get one final turn and scores are tallied. Players will take into account the victory points listed on each of their engine/train/building cards and any contracts they’ve completed. They also get one point for each cargo loaded on the train. The person with the most points, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

There are quite a few similarities between this and “The Great Heartland Hauling Company”. For one, they’re both pretty small in terms of size making this a fairly portable game. Both involve the delivering of goods as a means to reach some sort of goal, though “Isle of Trains” surprised me with its “helper” mechanic. In other words, helping someone else will grant you some type of immediate benefit. Here, you’re giving someone victory points for the ability to draw cards and/or etc. This strategy can be rather dicey, since victory points are the way to win the game. The helping player just has to hope that their investment will pay off more than it did in helping their opponent.

I liked the idea of being able to outfit my train as well as upgrade it as the game played out. It gave me a sense of progression in that I started with some dinky little train and ended up with something a bit more majestic in the end. Sort of like if “Percy” from Thomas the Tank Engine morphed into “Gordon”…there’s a reference you non-parents are sure to get. Anywho, being able to upgrade made me think about whether or not I wanted a weaker engine that couldn’t hold as much weight. I mean, upgrading can be expensive…that is, the cards you spend upgrading could be used to complete an easy primary contract right from the gate. At some point though, you’ll need a better engine and more cars to tackle those secondary contracts (you can’t claim a new primary contract until you complete one of the two secondary ones).

For ten bucks, “Isle of Trains” isn’t a bad little game. The cards have quite a few different uses (they can be used as currency, cargo, or as an engine/car) so you’ll constantly be trying to figure out what you want to discard so that you can grow your train. Each card is good in some way, but you’ll have to give some up in order to lay any down. The manual is fairly light and learning the game takes no time at all, though you may need the reference sheet in the back to remind you as to what the symbols and numbers on the cards mean. I was quite happy with my purchase and for you train lovers out there, I recommend checking this one out.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/isle-of-trains/feed/035341Quadropolishttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/quadropolis/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/quadropolis/#respondWed, 27 Apr 2016 13:27:45 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35537Oh city builders, how I love thee. The real world might prevent me from bulldozing all of the houses on my street (except for mine, of course) and replacing them with nothing but soft-serve kiosks that are open 24/7…but in fantasy land, I can do whatever I want. While I may not be able to construct an ice cream empire in “Quadropolis”, I can construct a small city and power/man it almost any way I’d like to. The catch is that each type of building (towers, shops, factories, etc.) score differently based on where they are and what’s around them. So ready your architects, because we’re going to be building stuff!

The game has two modes: classic and expert. To keep things moving, I’ll opt to briefly touch on the rules associated with the classic mode.

Each player gets a player mat, a player guide, and four architects of their color (numbered 1-4). The buildings are sorted by number (1-4), face-down. The construction site goes in the middle of the table with the resources (inhabitants & resources) placed nearby. A starting player is chosen at random and gets the mayor pawn.

The game is played over four rounds. For each round, you’ll use one of the four stacks of building tiles, starting with the 1’s. The instructions say to use the cloth bag to lay the 1’s out for the first round, but it’s easier to omit the bag and create four face-down stacks. For the first round, take the 1’s and randomly place them face down on the construction site so that 25 tiles are present. Then, based on the number of players, remove tiles as appropriate (in a two player game for example, remove the tiles that say 3-4 and 4).

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Take a building from the construction site. To do this, they’ll lay one of their four architects down on any of the four sides of the grid, then count in that many spaces as listed on the architect. An architect cannot be placed on top of another, nor can it point to the urbanist.

2. Move the urbanist to the space of the tile that was just taken.

3. Place the building in their city. They must place the tile on either the matching numbered row or column displayed on the architect played (if you played a 3 architect, then the building tile must be placed on either the 3rd column or 3rd row of your city).

4. Receive the resources listed on the top left of the building tile. If you couldn’t place your building and are thus forced to discard it, then you don’t receive the resources.

Players are free to allocate resources onto their buildings to activate them and further, move them around as need be until the game ends (they are not locked in to any one tile). Buildings that aren’t activated at the end of the game do not score and having excess resources will cause players to lose points.

Turns continue until players have played their four architect tiles, ending the round. To start a new round, the construction board is cleared and the #2 building tiles are laid out like the #1’s were. When the fourth round is over, players count up their victory points and the player with the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

The components are well done and more impressively, the game is quick and easy to play. Most city builders take a while to master…”Suburbia“, for example, has a TON of tile effects that make things pretty complicated toward the end of the game. Here, you’ll be thinking more about which buildings to go for and where to place them for maximum points as opposed to trying to remember that “X” tile will give you double points for every “Y” tile you have. In other words, the scoring system is a bit simpler, despite the fact that each building type has its own way of scoring. Tower tiles, for example, like to be stacked whereas wharfs like to be placed next to each other in a continuous line.

The resources are a nice touch too and I like the balancing act required to keep your score in check. By not having enough resources, some of your tiles won’t score. Have too much, and you’ll lose points for each excess resource you have. This can be hard to do, what with you and your opponents fighting over row and column spaces outside the grid…not to mention the urbanist, who prevents an architect from being played in a way to where they’d point to it. The architects are numbered one through four, so you’ll have to plan ahead and figure out which tiles to go for at the beginning of every round and hope you aren’t blocked mid-round by the other players.

Simply put, Days of Wonder has done it again…that is, make an excellent and engaging game that will no doubt be a competitor for the 2016 DGA awards coming later this year. I picked it up on the Miniature Market website for about $47 with shipping, though the MSRP seems to be a consistent $49.99. A little pricey for my tastes I’ll admit, though my weakness for city builders got the best of me. If you enjoyed the simplicity of “City Tycoon“, then by all means grab this game too.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/quadropolis/feed/035537Minecraft Card Game?http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/minecraft-card-game/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/minecraft-card-game/#respondTue, 26 Apr 2016 11:09:51 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35699I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve wasted building a house only to have it explode because of some cheeky little creeper. Fans of the game know that I’m talking about “Minecraft”, because the only creepers in real life are those who haven’t figured out what boundaries are. “Minecraft Card Game?” tasks players with crafting items and earning points by drafting materials from a central pool. Items they do craft can be used once for its special effect (though they retain the points).

Simply put, each player receives a card holder which allows them to reserve a card should they wish to craft it in the future. The twenty-five craft cards are shuffled and put into four even stacks (tool side face-up), with the one remainder card placed off to the side to form a discard pile. The resource cards are shuffled and put into five even stacks.

On a player’s turn they can take a total of two actions. These two actions include drawing a resource card from one of the five stacks, taking a craft/item card by discarding the appropriate resource cards, or reserving a card. Resource cards come in various forms like wood, stone, gold, diamond, and etc. with each listing a number indicating the quantity of that material. Each craft card lists a recipe along with the number of victory points they’re worth.

There are some cards among the five stacks that effect players a bit. TNT, when revealed, must be played immediately. The active player takes the top card from the other four piles, chooses two to keep, and discards the rest along with the TNT card. The creeper, when revealed, forces players to discard material card unless they have a crafted sword that they haven’t used yet to negate the effect. Each craft card has a one-time use ability, though you retain the victory points on the card.

The first player to reach a certain point value (depends on the number of players) wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Minecraft Card Game?” reminds me a lot of “Splendor”, what with the central mechanic of taking resources and then using said resources to acquire cards with victory points being the same. The reserve a card mechanic is similar too, though “Minecraft Card Game?” is much more simplistic. With that said, I enjoyed playing this one because A) I like “Minecraft” and B) I enjoy playing “Splendor”. Sure, it’s not on par with games like “Agricola”, but sometimes a simple card game is all you’re looking for on a busy weekday night. I bought it for about $12 on Amazon, making it an easy recommend for any child or gamer family who enjoys playing “Minecraft”, “Splendor”, or both.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/minecraft-card-game/feed/035699Tally Ho!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tally-ho/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tally-ho/#respondSat, 16 Apr 2016 18:33:26 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35666I’m not what you would call an outdoorsman, especially when it’s muddy and/or cold. Call me crazy, but most of my time is spent indoors either being a parent, reading a book, or playing/reviewing a game of some type with the family. While “Tally Ho!” revolves around the idea of two players hunting each other, they can do so without leaving the comfort of their dining room table. One player will take on the role of the hunters and lumberjacks while the other plays as the bears and foxes. They can both hunt neutral game like ducks and pheasants to earn points, or simply hunt each other based on their individual movement / hunting rules. Before I get into all that however, I’d like to thank Eve Vergnes from Southard Communications, Inc. for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Tally Ho!: 2 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes

Components

The game includes 1 board, 8 tiles with a blue background (2 bears and 6 foxes), 10 tiles with a brown background (2 lumberjacks and 8 hunters), 30 tiles with a green background (7 ducks, 8 pheasants, and 15 trees), and a rulebook.

Setup & Gameplay

To set up the game, players shuffle the tiles face-down and place them on the board, leaving the middle space empty. They then decide who will play blue (bears and foxes) and who will play brown (hunters and lumberjacks). The blue player goes first, with players alternating turns.

On a player’s turn, they’ll either flip a face-down tile face-up or move an existing face-up tile. It’s important that when a player does the former that they do so by flipping from the bottom up, as the orientation of some tiles are important. There are a number of rules involved when moving an already existing tile but to some it up, blue can only move blue and brown can only move brown. Green animals can be moved by either player while trees may not be moved at all. The bear and lumberjack may only move one space and all tiles have to move both orthogonally and through empty spaces. After flipping a green tile, that player’s opponent may not move it on their next turn. Players may also not return to a space in which it started on that same turn.

To score points, players will be using their colored tiles to remove other tiles from the board. A lumberjack only removes trees while the hunter may only remove animals that are in front of the hunter. The hunter, when flipped, may not change his orientation though he may do so after moving to an empty space. A bear may only remove the hunter and lumberjack, while the fox may only remove pheasants and ducks.

When the last tile is turned over, each player takes five more turns and the game ends. During this time, players may remove their own tiles from the board for extra points by moving it through one of the four exits. The game ends immediately however if all tiles have been turned face-up and there are no more tiles of a particular player color on the board. Players then count up their points, switch roles, and play one more game. After that, they sum up their points from their two games and whoever has the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Tally Ho!” turned out to be a fairly decent two player game. There’s a bit more luck than there is strategy since you really have no idea what you’re flipping over when you decide to take that action, but the strategic part does set in later in the game as more empty spaces present themselves. As the animals, positioning yourself in a way to where the hunter can’t get a clear line of sight with you is key, though this gets harder to do as more tiles are removed from play. The lumberjack, as you can imagine, can help out quite a bit since trees can’t be moved and provide some great cover for the animals. I like the idea of playing two rounds as I felt more empowered as the hunter than I did with the bear. Then again, racking up points by taking out neutral game with your foxes is a great way to counter this.

From a tactile standpoint, the game’s components are good and the rules easy to understand, though I wish the tile backs didn’t blend in so much with the board. There’s a slight learning curve with how the animals move and hunt, so it may take a few games to really develop strategies with what you have available to you at the time. Bears and lumberjacks, for example, only move one space whereas the hunter can only hunt game in the direction he’s pointing. It’s really not all that difficult to follow, it just takes a small amount of time to get used to how everything flows and what the best ways to go about earning points are. “Tally Ho!” is great for kids as blood and violence are not depicted, save for the idea of hunting animals/humans in the first place. All in all, “Tally Ho!” serves as a pretty good filler for a gamer couple or parent/child pairing looking to knock out something quick when time is at a premium.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tally-ho/feed/035666The Rose Kinghttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/rose-king/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/rose-king/#respondSat, 16 Apr 2016 18:31:07 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35671When it comes to history outside of the US, I’m absolutely clueless. When I hear “War of the Roses”, for example, I just picture two English dudes with monocles and cups of tea slapping each other in the face with a bouquet of roses. Now that I’ve lost half of my European audience, lets move on to why we’re really here: “The Rose King”, a two player game that focuses on area control. Special thanks to Eve Vergnes from Southard Communications, Inc. for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

The Rose King: 2 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Components

The game includes 1 Game Board, 52 Power Tokens (red on one side, white on the other), 24 Power Cards (one card containing a I, II, or III and a direction), 8 Hero Cards (4 white, 4 red), a crown token, and a rulebook.

Setup & Gameplay

The board is placed between players so that the side with the crown is facing the player controlling red. The power cards are shuffled and each player gets five face-up with the rest forming a face-down draw pile. It’s important that the players orient these cards so that the crown on the board has the same orientation as the one on the cards. Each player also gets four hero cards of their matching color. The crown token starts in the center space with red going first.

On a player’s turn they can do one of three things:

1. Play a power card – The player will discard a power card and move the crown token a number of spaces (indicated by the roman numeral) in a particular direction (indicated by the sword). A player can only move to an empty space and cannot either move off the board or shorten their move. Once on the empty space, the player places a power token of their color on that space.

2. Draw a power card – The player can draw a power card from the draw pile, though only if they have less than five cards. The discard pile is shuffled to be the new draw pile should the draw pile run out.

3. Play a hero card along with a power card – The hero card allows the player to land on an opponent’s space (normally not allowed) and flip it to their color. Both the hero card and power card are discarded.

Players continue taking turns until they cannot carry out any more moves or if a player places their last power token on the board. Players then calculate their scores by looking at each territory (a clump of adjacent power tokens of their color, diagonals do not count). The number of tokens in a territory is squared to calculate its point value. The player with the most points once all territories are calculated and summed is the winner!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“The Rose King” reminds me a lot of “Go”, what with the importance of territory control for final scoring. What I found interesting was the strategic use of power (move) cards and a shared crown marker to determine where you could place a power token of your color. This mechanic makes the game a lot more strategic, especially since you can see what moves your opponent has at any given time. Further, the hero cards are limited but allow you to flip a power token to your color, possibly connecting two territories into one earning you more points at the game’s end. Since territory scores are calculated by their size squared, it behooves players to make their territories as big as possible.

Setting up the game was honestly the hardest thing to wrap my head around as the text in that section of the rulebook confused me a little. Luckily, there was a picture of how things should look making setup a breeze. It’s just important to remember that the power cards need to be oriented in the same direction…if you’re red, then the roman numeral/crown will be closer to you and if you’re white, the direction/sword will be closer to you. I assume this was done for balance purposes to prevent situations where the crown may get to an edge and not be able to move in the other direction, as the deck contains a fair balance of cards that move the crown in all directions. If one player were to accidentally reverse their cards’ orientation, both players may end up with more “downs” or “ups” then the deck was balanced for.

Despite my complete lack of knowledge with European history I was able to enjoy “The Rose King” tenfold and then some. It truly is a remarkable and strategic experience that “Othello” or “Go” lovers would do well to have in their collection.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/rose-king/feed/035671Town Centerhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/town-center/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/town-center/#respondWed, 13 Apr 2016 11:46:37 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35658I had a weakness for city builders ever since I laid my hands on SimCity for the SNES. There’s nothing more satisfying than getting a population of 500,000 people, saving, and then calling in every natural disaster the game has to offer. There aren’t any tornadoes in “Town Center”, nor will Godzilla show up to Hulk-Smash everything to tiny pieces. Still, players will be able to earn victory points for how well they manage their town through the process of drafting and placing cubes.

Town Center: 1-4 Players*, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

*The box says 2-4 players, but there is a solo variant and solo score table in the manual.

Components

The game includes 4 double-sided player boards, 1 double-sided central/solo board, various large building and small player cubes, a cloth bag, and a manual.

Setup & Gameplay

Players each get a player board, pick the same side, and place a small cube of their player color (their choice) onto the $3 spot on the income track of the central board. A number of cubes are placed in the cloth bag depending on the number of players…the rest go into a reserve. Each player gets a large purple cube (town hall/office) and places it on any building spot on their player board.

The game is broken up over a series of rounds, with each round consisting of five phases:

1. Investment – The active player pulls cubes from the bag equal to the number of players times two, then stacks them into towers on the table two-high any way they’d like. For the first round, office cubes are re-drafted. Starting with the active player and going clockwise, they choose the top-most cube from one of the towers. This continues until everyone has two cubes.

2. Construction – The players place the cubes they earned from phase one onto their boards, though there are some restrictions. Green residential cubes cannot be placed adjacent to green cubes, nor can blue commercial cubes be placed adjacent to blue cubes. Players must pay $5 to place a red office cube and grey cubes one-high act as parking lots while grey cubes 2+-high act as elevators. Elevators determine the maximum height players can stack their cubes throughout their town. Elevators need to be powered by yellow utility cubes however in order to work. Cubes in the suburbs can only be stacked one-high.

3. Development – Residential green cubes spawn another green cube based on the number of red office cubes touching it. A residential unit of one cube needs two or more offices adjacent to it to spawn another green cube, a residential unit of two cubes needs three adjacent red office cubes, and so on. Commercial blue cubes will develop based on the number of residential units (not cubes) touching it. A commercial unit of one cube will develop if two residential units are adjacent, and so on. A unit is simply more than one cube of the same cube color that are adjacent to one another.

4. Tax Revenue – Each player gets $1 automatically per round. Powered commercial cubes earn money for both its size and height (there’s a chart on the central board). Parking lots generate $1 for each cube adjacent to it (maximum of $4) and do not need to be powered.

5. Public Works – In reverse player order, players may pay money (the cost varies) to buy one yellow or one black elevator cube from the reserve.

Once the round is over, the bag of cubes is passed clockwise who becomes the starting player. Once the bag is out of cubes and the final round plays out, the game is over. Players earn one point for every $5 they have, as well as points for their powered residential units based on size and height (there’s a chart on the central board). They lose a point for each cube built in the suburbs. The player who has the most points, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I’ve had my eye on this one for quite a while and would have grabbed it sooner, had it not been so hard to buy. Eventually I found it on Miniature Market for about $40 which is a bit steep for my tastes. Then again, you’re getting a LOT of cubes with this game and the quality of the components is fairly good. The player boards are two-sided and there’s even a separate solo board on the reverse side of the central board should you wish to use it, though you can play solo on the standard player boards too.

The rules are a bit confusing, especially when it comes to earning money and scoring. During the tax revenue phase, for example, players earn money for powered commercial units based on size and height (separately). Three cubes next to each other on the ground floor score $1 + $2 + $3 (size), while cubes on the second floor add $1 to the revenue, cubes on the third floor add $2 to the revenue, and so on. So a commercial unit of four cubes that reaches the third floor earns $1 + $2 + $3 + $4 (size) + $1 + $2 (height). Thank goodness for the chart on the central board or I’d be miscalculating quite a bit.

“Town Center” is deceptively simple in that it’s easy to play once you get a handle on the rules. However, it may take a few games and possibly some research to understand some of the specifics. For example, I couldn’t determine if two grey cubes that were stacked still earned income. I knew that the pairing became an elevator as soon as the second cube stacked, but I didn’t know if the bottom-most cube still earned money as if it were a parking lot. I later determined through research that once a parking lot turned into an elevator then it didn’t generate any more money.

I might not be very good at the game right now, but I often pull it out of my closet to play a solo game just to see if I can do better than the last time I tried it. In some ways, this game seems more like a puzzle game than a city-builder since you’re limited on the building types you can place every round and you may not get the ones you want via the drafting process. “Town Center” warrants your attention if you have the patience to learn the tax/scoring system, as well as how buildings automatically sprawl during development. Otherwise, you might want to try a city-builder that is a bit more straight forward, even if it takes longer to play.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/town-center/feed/035658Gold Westhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/gold-west/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/gold-west/#respondMon, 11 Apr 2016 09:34:11 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35630I wasn’t around for the days of the “Old West”, but I think I have the general idea. You either died of dysentery, got punched in the face by John Wayne, or got bullied around by Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen (bonus points if you got all three references). Yes, things were sure tough back then. Anywho, “Gold West” puts players in the shoes of prospectors who must gather/sell resources, earn influence, and have the most points by the end of the game. Before we bust out the pick axes, I’d like to thank the folks at Tasty Minstrel Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

I’ll opt to streamline game setup (to keep the review moving) by saying that players will align the board so that the water tile is in the middle. Then, they’ll randomly seed the board with resource tokens (face-down) on the matching colored spaces. The ones touching the water, when it’s all said and done, will be flipped face-up. Each player a player board, a miner score token, 3 stage coaches, 12 camps, and 12 influence tokens in their player color. 4 boomtown offices will be placed randomly on the boomtown 3×3 grid with a 4 VP token placed in the empty space. 8 random investment cards are drawn face-up. Lastly, players setup the shipping track and their individual supply tracks.

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Activate their supply track by choosing a space, picking up all the resources on it, and dropping them one at a time toward the exit. Those that make it to the exit are used that turn.

2. Use metals in three ways: buying investment cards, placing an influence token on a boomtown office space, and/or moving your stage coach up the shipping track. All three usually earn players points in some way.

3. Build a camp, build a settlement, or loot. Players can build a camp token onto any space on the board if they have a wood or stone resource. If they have both, they can build a settlement (a camp token on top of an influence token). The camp/settlement replaces the resource token on the board and the player places the resources on said token into one of their bins…the further back they place it from the exit, the more VPs they earn. The resource token is placed on the player’s influence track on the next available space of that resource type (you skip a space if you built a settlement). If you don’t have wood or stone, then you’ll place a camp token on the loot space, lose a point, but still take a resource token from the board. You also reveal the resource tokens around the one just taken off the board.

The game ends when players have placed all their camp pieces. Scoring will come from a number of sources: building groups of camps/settlements, boomtown bonuses, looting penalties, influence for each terrain type, and so on. The player with the most points, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Gold West” is quite an impressive feat. It’s pretty simple to play, yet has so many different ways for players to score. Short on wood or stone but have plenty of metal? That’s okay, go buy some investment cards or sell them to move your stage coach up the track to try to claim some VP. Finding yourself with plenty of wood and stone? Build some settlements and quickly climb the influence track across the various resource types. Need the resources you just mined now? No problem, put them in the front-most bin so that you have them ready to use on your next turn (though you get VPs if you put them in bins that are further back). Like I said…simple turns, lots of ways to score.

There’s a lot of replayability here too. Out of the twenty investment cards, only eight will be used each game. Same deal with the boomtown offices…you never know how they’ll be laid out on the 3×3 grid and where they are determines what metals you’ll need to put an influence token there. The space containing 4 VP by turning in a copper and gold may contain an actual boomtown office space next game, for example. There’s also some strategy in where you place your camps…one might decide to get the clumping bonus by putting all their camps together, while another might try to block another player by placing camps in their general area.

“Gold West” can be found on Amazon for about $45 (as of 4/5/16) making it one of the pricier games in my collection, though I did find it very enjoyable. If money isn’t an issue and you enjoy resource management, area control, and various ways to earn VPs, then take a gander at this gem.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/gold-west/feed/035630Lightning Dicehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/lightning-dice/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/lightning-dice/#respondThu, 07 Apr 2016 14:21:15 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35625I came across “Lightning Dice” and instantly had two thoughts. The first one involved lightning bolts shooting from the sky made of dice instead of electricity (wouldn’t that be fun?) while the second revolved around the idea of a fast and furious dice rolling game. Imagine my surprise when the latter turned out the be true…though while hazardous, bolts made of lightning would save me from ever having to buy dice again. In “Lightning Dice”, players will be furiously rolling dice to try and match the flipped card in order to score points, though they’ll be able to give themselves a bonus or their opponents a penalty if they roll particular combinations. Special thanks to Brian from Wild East Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Each player gets a pawn and dice of matching colors, with the former going on the “Start” space on the score track. Each player is assigned a player number (1, 2, etc.) which will come into play later on for scoring purposes. The cards are shuffled and placed face-down.

When players are ready to begin, the first card is flipped. Everyone, at the same time, will roll their dice with the intent on matching the combination listed on the card. Players may roll any number of dice they want with each roll and there are no turns, so roll quickly! The first to meet the card’s requirements scores two points and moves their marker up the score track. A new card is drawn and the process repeats.

If you happen to roll all the same number and it happens to be your player number, you get a bonus point and will then continue to try and meet the requirements on the card as normal. If you happen to roll all the same number and it happens to be an opponent’s player number, they lose a point and then you’ll continue to try and meet the requirements on the card as normal.

The first player to reach twenty points wins the game!

Alternatively, players can play without the board & pawns. The first player to meet the card’s requirements takes the card. When the deck runs out, the player with the most cards wins the game.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

There’s a reason why “Roll For It!”, another game I reviewed last year, was so popular in my household…it’s fun and easy to play. I’m pleased to report that “Lightning Dice” was equally as well received. I’m personally not a fan of games that force you to rush against other players, so I decided to modify the rules a bit so that everyone took a dice roll in turn (like in “Roll For It!”). This kept things less messy, less competitive, and less stressful…three things I look for in a family-friendly game. Sure, the frantic dice rolling might bode well with some people…I just prefer a more relaxed atmosphere because I’m slowing down in my old age and take longer to process things. Taking turns, I find, also makes the game slightly more strategic as you’ll really have to pick and choose which dice to reroll and which ones to keep.

I did like the added mechanic of either gaining a bonus or applying a penalty to an opponent upon rolling all the same number. It gave me a few options when I wasn’t rolling particularly well to meet the card’s requirements. Speaking of which, the cards were both pleasant to look at and easy to read, which is a plus. In fact, everything about the game looked sharp. My only real concern here is the $29.95 price tag featured on the game’s official website. It’s a bit much, I feel, for how simple the game is…$19.99 would have been a bit more realistic. Then again, I’ve been told countless times that manufacturing costs sometimes force developers to set the price tag higher than they’d like. Still, as a consumer, I think twenty bucks is a bit more reasonable and on par with other dice games on the market.

If the price tag doesn’t concern you and dice rolling games are a family favorite, then by all means give “Lightning Dice” a spin.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/lightning-dice/feed/035625Elements (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/elements-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/elements-preview/#respondThu, 31 Mar 2016 18:38:00 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35256I have to admit that I had a slight urge to go pull up some “Earth, Wind & Fire” on my MP3 player when I received this game in the mail. I suppose I have my “Reasons”, though some may chalk it up to “Devotion”. “Elements”, as you may have guessed, tasks players with using things like fire, water, air, earth, and other elements to create substances and earn points. It’ll be launching on Kickstarter some time in March of 2016 and supports up to four players. Before I give you a run down of how the game plays, I’d like to thank Chris Rossetti from Rampage Games LLC for providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see and read about here (including the rules) subject to change.

Elements: 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes

My prototype copy came with 72 element cards, 18 substance cards, 34 gems, 2 six-sided dice, and a small rulebook that was about six pages in length. To set up the game, each player chooses a gem of a different color (except for purple) after placing them in the middle of the table to form a pool. The two decks (element & substance) are shuffled separately. Then, each player is dealt one substance card (face-up) and four element cards (face-down), the latter of which forms their starting hand. The top three cards of the element deck are drawn face-up to start the discard pile. Players roll dice to see who goes first.

The object of the game is to be the player that reaches ten points first or to have the highest score once all of the substances have been built. To earn points, players will need to create substances. Each player will have one substance at a time, each of which lists a number of elements needed to complete it. It also lists a point value and sometimes, bonus gems which are awarded to the player if they complete the substance naturally (without using a special element, which I’ll get to). When a player completes a substance card, it’ll go into their score pile and they’ll draw a new one from the deck. They also get to choose one gem from the pool, regardless if they completed the substance naturally.

Okay, so now you know that in order to earn points you’ll need to complete substance cards. Element cards, as mentioned above, are played on substance cards in order to do that. Elements come in three types: primary (fire, water, air, earth), secondary (power, wood, oil, metal), and special (meta – acts like a wild card). The first card played on a substance MUST be a primary element, if it has one. After that (on future turns), there’s no limit to how many elements you play on that same substance card. If at any point the primary element gets removed due to dice outcomes, then you’ll need to play it by itself before playing any more on future turns. In addition to using elements found on cards, players can use the gems they’ll earn by completing substances naturally…in other words, without using a meta/wild card.

So how does the gameplay flow? Quite simply, actually. On a player’s turn, they’ll start by drawing one card from the element deck. Then, they’ll roll both dice and choose one of them. Each number (1-6) has a corresponding action associated with it. 1, for example, allows you to draw one card from the deck. 2, as another, lets you draw a card from the discard pile. If you happen to roll doubles, then you can take that numbered action AND steal one gem from another player. If you can’t perform the actions on either die, then you’ll continue to roll one until it comes up with a value that can be acted upon. Once this is done, the player can play element cards onto their substance within accordance to the above-mentioned rules. At the end of their turn, a player must have at least three or no more than five element cards. They can also discard one gem to discard up to their entire hand, redrawing that many cards.

There’s also a pretty cool “fusion of elements” mechanic that allows players to combine primary element gems to form a secondary element. Let’s say that you had a substance card in front of you that needed power, but you didn’t have a power element card in your hand. However, you did happen to have a clear and red gem. Within accordance to the chart in the manual, you could play both gems on the substance to create the power you needed. You can also combine all four colors to claim a purple meta gem. I personally like this feature as it helps to offset the luck factor involved with trying to draw the exact cards you need to complete a substance.

While I didn’t touch on ALL of the rules found in the manual, the above should give you an idea as to how the game is played. “Elements” is simple enough to pick up and play with relative ease, making it an ideal choice for casual gamers who enjoy playing light card games with a little bit of “oomph” to them. The ideas it conveys are sound and the gameplay flows both quickly and well. My prototype copy, as mentioned, may not be reflective of the final product so keep that in mind when I say that I wish the element cards could have been a bit sleeker looking. The substance cards looked fine, but the artwork on the element cards seemed a bit…generic. Again, prototype and all…I can’t stress that enough. Regardless of how the final production copy looks, the gameplay is able to stand on its own and for that, “Elements” is worth checking out.

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You can learn more about and support “Elements” by visiting its Kickstarter page, here:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/elements-preview/feed/035256PRESS RELEASE: Connected Camps Launches “Summer of Minecraft” Camphttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-connected-camps-launches-summer-of-minecraft-camp/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-connected-camps-launches-summer-of-minecraft-camp/#respondThu, 31 Mar 2016 09:31:15 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35571I haven’t met a kid who didn’t like “Minecraft”. Sure, some adults may find it too simplistic in terms of graphics and not like it for other various reasons, but most kids appreciate the freedom to design and construct almost anything they want. I personally like the survival mode aspects and the sense of satisfaction I get when my house extension goes up or when I’ve found that rare patch of diamonds. Starting June 27th, Connected Camps will be hosting a “Summer of Minecraft” camp for kids…how neat is that?! It’s really too bad that camps like that weren’t around when I was young.

Connected Camps was catalyzed by three girl geeks on a mission to make coding and digital arts accessible and fun for all kids. During their online summer Minecraft camp, kids can learn all about Minecraft, from the basics of play to coding and architecture, in-game engineering, and game design. There are camps for mixed groups, a variety of knowledge levels and ages (8-15), and even girls-only camps, to empower next-level STEM learning. The biggest plus? This is a virtual summer camp! The camps are all online and can be done from home in a safe and dedicated Minecraft server. Kids are able to play and learn in a secure, monitored environment where they can learn how to code, build circuits, and design games.

The summer of Minecraft camps are all moderated by knowledgeable counselors via servers, providing children with a safe online environment. Connected Camps helps to develop campers’ Minecraft skills with week-long camps varying from in-game coding to game design. Not only is Minecraft fun, but kids will learn everything from problem solving and design to digital citizenship and collaboration and community organizing.

Each one-week camp regularly costs $139, but right now they are offering early-bird specials for just $99 if you register before the end of the month. But on top of all that, Connected Camps is offering an EXTRA 25% OFF to Dad’s Gaming Addiction Readers! Just use the code DADSGAMING25 at checkout!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-connected-camps-launches-summer-of-minecraft-camp/feed/035571Coal Baron (Glück Auf)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/coal-baron-gluck-auf/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/coal-baron-gluck-auf/#respondWed, 30 Mar 2016 13:26:27 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35586“Coal Baron” (“Glück Auf” in German) is primarily a worker placement game that tasks players with mining coal out of the ground and completing orders. While each player has their own elevator shaft, they’ll be competing over the other spaces and delivery cards via worker pieces. The more a space is used, the more workers you’ll need. That, of course, is an over-simplified version of the gameplay mechanics, so let’s jump right in and start digging!

To keep the review moving I’ll simply opt to cover the highlights. In general, the first thing you’ll want to do is lock out certain spaces on the board with lock tiles, depending on how many players you have. Tunnel tiles are shuffled to form a face-down stack, then some are dealt face-up onto their board spaces. The shift hand will point to the “1/I” on the clock and the score marker onto the left most circle space on the clock. Players receive workers of their color, a pit, a shaft inlay, a pit cage, 4 coal cubes (one of each color, placing them in the lorry/tunnel space of their color), and some money. Order cards are drawn and going counterclockwise starting with the person to the right of the start player, they are drafted until each player has three outstanding orders. Then fill the order card spaces one more time so players can grab more during the game.

The game itself is played over three rounds / shifts. This being a worker placement game, players will be taking turns adding workers to various spots on the board carrying out the appropriate action. If a worker or workers already inhabit the spot, then you’ll need to place a number of workers equal to how many are present +1. The other player’s workers are then moved to the canteen until the next round.

1. Lorry Factory – The player places a worker on a worker space, taking the tunnel next to it and paying the cost to the bank. The tunnel is then placed onto its matching level (by coal color) either on the lit or unlit side of their pit with 1/2 cubes of that color being placed on the tile (depending on if there is/are 1/2 lorries). The only way to get more ore is to buy more tunnels…existing tunnels cannot be refilled.

2. Mining – Based on the number the player placed their worker next to, they can take that many actions moving ore onto their pit cage (max 5) and moving the pit up and down. The main idea is to collect coal from the tunnels then carry them to the surface. Once there and using an action, they can place a cube onto an order card or into storage.

3. Delivery – The player will place a worker onto one of the delivery spaces, each one a different mode of delivery (cart, truck, train, etc.). The player will then complete any full order cards of the matching delivery type, earning VP and adjusting their marker along the tracker. They’ll keep the order cards though for determining shareholder bonuses at the round’s end.

4. Money – The player receives money based on the number the worker is placed beside.

5. New Order – The player takes the outstanding order card next to the spot in which they placed the worker.

Once players run out of workers, the shift ends. Each shift has elements like “most yellow order spots on completed orders” which awards players for having majority / minorities across various categories. Players score VPS appropriately. Future shifts include all elements from the shifts before it. The first player marker moves to whoever has the most workers on the lorry factory and then players get all of their workers back.

The game ends after three rounds. Players gain VP for any money or leftover cubes they have, while losing VP for things like tunnel balance (lit vs unlit tiles) and outstanding orders not completed. The player with the most VP, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

My first experience with “Coal Baron (Glück Auf)” was actually when I received a press copy of the video game adaptation. I later did a first impressions video on my YouTube channeland for the most part, enjoyed the game. There were some bugs and interface issues that broke the game, but the asking price of $3.99 (as of 3/22/16) is much more attractive than the $30-45 board game. I picked the latter up because well, I wanted a game that always worked and also be able to play it on my dining room table. Glück Auf, for those of you curious, is a German greeting miners used to give one another before a shift started. It translates into something like “good luck/good mining”.

The tabletop version experience went pretty seamlessly. Vinnie Jr. did an excellent job in gaining majorities, giving him the victory points he needed to sail way over my final score. I thought I was being clever in acquiring orders with the same transportation type across the board…sure it saved me some workers as I was able to fulfill three orders in one go, but his lone train order gave him a ton of victory points as I had none. As worker placement games go, this one turned out to be pretty fun. It’s also fairly strategic in that you’ll have to constantly decide whether to outbid your opponent (or yourself) for a spot by placing more workers there or by settling for a space with a not so high yield (but at minimal worker cost).

This is a great game overall and one worth playing if you like worker placement games.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/coal-baron-gluck-auf/feed/035586Revenge of the Dictators (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/revenge-of-the-dictators-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/revenge-of-the-dictators-preview/#respondTue, 29 Mar 2016 16:49:55 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35448Have you ever dreamed of taking over the USA and running things YOUR way? As patriotic as I am, there are admittedly some things I’d love to see change in order to make our great nation a better one. I’ve played both “SimCity” and “Tropico”, so I know what I’m talking about…people may hate me for the smoking and alcohol ban, but they’ll thank me when their body parts aren’t planning a mutiny when they turn forty. “Revenge of the Dictators”, a game that’ll be launching on Kickstarter in March of 2016, is a competitive game for 2-5 players to where each player is trying to overthrow the President of the USA and become its Dictator. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Bart from Black Box Adventures for providing me with a prototype for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you see in this article (including the rules) subject to change.

So you’re probably wondering, “if I’m trying to take over the USA, then what are all these Nuclear Zones about?” For starters, the dictators/players will need to disarm some nuclear facilities in order to remove the nuclear threats targeting their home countries. In a way, they’ll have to work together to do this (there is a universal DEFCON timer), but then again only one player will be the “Grandmaster Über Dictator”. Essentially, players start their player pawns in Hawaii and will be racing across the US to confront the President in Washington D.C. and take things over for themselves. However, their chances of doing so won’t be very high if they fail to disarm a bunch of nuclear facilities along the way.

I won’t delve too deeply into game setup, but each player will receive one dictator card (which everyone can see and gives them a special ability) and one nuclear zone card from each of the four decks (which will be kept secret). The four nuclear zone cards given to you are for your eyes only. Each player receives four command cards to form their starting hand. Three Founding Father cards are randomly picked face-down and both DEFCON cards are then shuffled into the command deck…the order is important so that players aren’t dealt any of the latter five cards. The Presidential deck is shuffled separately, though it’s recommended that the “Oops” card is removed for the benefit of starting players. Both Mexico and Canada will be seeded with one randomly placed Nuclear 4 token. The DEFCON marker starts at 5.

On a player’s turn, they’ll get a total of three actions (though they can use less if they want to). The order and combination are up to the player, though the travel action can only be used once per turn. These actions include:

Travel – Move your pawn from one location to another following the roads (straight lines). You can only move to another location if there is an actual connection between those locations. The Travel action is also used for other elements in the game (Roads / International Flights and Nuclear Zones / Nuclear Facilities / Disarming a Nuclear Facility). Special means of transportation (i.e. “Amtrak”, “Helicopter”, “March”) do not count as a Travel action.

Draw a Card – Draw one card from the Command deck. You may draw more cards than your hand size limit permits you to have, though you’ll need to discard any excess cards at the end of your turn.

Play an Action Card – You are only allowed to play Action cards during your own turn (in comparison to Interruption cards which can be played at any time for no action). Some Action cards cost more than 1 action to play as shown by the number in the bottom right-hand corner.

The board itself is divided into 4 nuclear zones, as represented by the four nuclear decks. Every zone has locations that may or may contain nuclear facility, represented by the nuclear sign as shown on the map legend. The dictators/players may only disarm their own nuclear facilities (via the four cards they were given at the beginning of the game). Disarming nuclear facilities in zones 1, 2, and 3 improve your chances when confronting the President. Disarming a nuclear facility in zone four grants you a random bonus. Disarming a nuclear facility involves being on location, revealing the matching nuclear card, spending their travel action plus one additional action, and rolling a single 6-sided die. On a roll of 3-6, you succeed.

Once you reach Washington D.C., you’ll first have to make sure that the President is present by drawing a card from the Presidential deck. You’ll have to do this at the start of your turn, before ANY actions are used as you’ll have to sacrifice your entire turn to confront him. If the President is there, you’ll roll a 20-sided die and compare its value to the chart in the manual. The more nuclear facilities you disarm, the better your chances. For example, if you haven’t disarmed ANY nuclear facilities, then you’ll have to roll a 20. Disarming three, on the other hand, means you’ll have to roll a minimum of an 8. If the President isn’t there, the player may play out their turn as normal unless the card drawn says otherwise.

The DEFCON level acts as a timer of sorts. There are 2 DEFCON cards in the Command deck and there is one DEFCON card in the Presidential deck. As these are drawn, the DEFCON marker goes down a number and changes things both on and off the board. For example, roadblock tokens are placed on each road between nuclear zones 1 and 2 when the DEFCON marker hits 4. At DEFCON 1, each player gets 2 more turns and unless someone confronts the President successfully, everyone loses the game. You can increase or decrease the difficulty of the game in various ways, should you find the game too easy or hard respectively. For example, you can remove some or all of the Founding Father cards and/or a DEFCON card from either or both the Command and Presidential deck to make things easier.

The meat of the game lies with all of the different cards that can be played. In fact, there are about seven pages in the PDF manual dedicated to explaining what they all do. The “EMP” action card, for example, makes everyone in a chosen state lose their turn. The “Engineer” can be played so that you don’t have to spend your travel and additional action (though a roll is still required) and the “Just What I Needed” card lets you search the Command deck’s discard pile for a card of your choosing, which is then placed into your hand. Some action cards like “Amtrak” allow you to bypass roadblocks should they be present. Interruption cards like “CIA” forces a player to reveal their nuclear facilities to everyone, though “Diplomatic Immunity” cards exist to cancel it. There are plenty more cards I haven’t covered and to the game’s credit, they keep things interesting.

“Revenge of the Dictators” may look complicated, but it’s really not. I like that players are encouraged to work together to beat the DEFCON timer and to do this, they’ll have to set their opponents back just enough to keep them from pulling ahead but not too much to where they spend all of their efforts sabotaging each other. If all players did was play cards on one another, then the nuclear zones stay online and the chances of overthrowing the President becomes almost impossible. In other words, you’ll need to “sort of” play nice with your fellow dictators so that you can complete your hidden goals. “Revenge of the Dictators” is one chaotic race across the US that you won’t want to pass up if you enjoy cutthroat & competitive games.

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You can learn more about and support the game via its Kickstarter page:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/revenge-of-the-dictators-preview/feed/035448Space Junkhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/space-junk/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/space-junk/#respondWed, 23 Mar 2016 15:03:25 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35588Normally when I play a sci-fi themed game, I’m blowing up Klingons or launching proton torpedoes at some unsuspecting TIE Fighter. “Space Junk” takes a different approach and tasks players with collecting the most fame by collecting…you guessed it, junk. Junk can also be used to upgrade your ship across three stats: movement, attack, and search and can also be lost in battle. Hope you’re ready to think like Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager, but we’re about to scrounge!

Space Junk: 2-6 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes

Setup & Gameplay

To give you an overview of setup, each player gets a random character card to put on their personal board. Some characters start with a space junk card, so search and pull stuff out of the junk deck as you need to and shuffle. Players place their ships (large cubes) on the start line and score cubes (little cubes) near the tracker. The other three smaller cubes are placed on the three different categories (one per category) to track an individual stat (movement, attack, or search).

If you have two cards on your board with an attack of 1 and another with an attack of 2, then the cube under the attack tracker would start at 3. It’s important to note that throughout the game, junk cards placed under the movement, attack, and search columns observe that stat only when adjusting these trackers. All three stats on the character card and fuselage space are observed. Someone receives the first player token to go first, though it passes clockwise every round.

The game is played over six rounds. The round is broken up into three phases, with each player performing the phase before everyone moves onto the next one.

1. Movement – The active player chooses one of the three rings (moving their ship cube back a bit when moving further out due to the increased frequency of spaces) and moves the number of spaces listed on their movement tracker. The blue ring has four spaces whereas as yellow and red are further out and have more. Each time a ship crosses the start line, the player earns five points.

2. Attack – The active player chooses a target and rolls one D6. They add the value of the roll to their attack value minus the number of spaces to their target. Then, for every 5 they can squeeze into the total value without going over, they score a hit. If the final value is 13, then they’d score two hits. For every hit, they score three points AND roll that many D6 to determine damage to the other ship. Each of the six spaces on a player board (two under each movement/attack/search) column has a number assigned to it and any numbers rolled will damage that junk card, which can still be used but is discarded during the search phase.

3. Search – The active player draws a number of junk cards based on their search value and their maximum draw limit based on which ring they’re in. You’re limited to three cards in the blue ring, for example, even if your search stat is 5. They can then add these cards to their board, adding/replacing cards or piling them into their safe cargo hold if they so choose.

After six rounds, players also take into account any fame they may have on any of their cards, whether they come from their cargo or other spaces. Points are tallied and whoever has the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Space Junk” is a pretty cool idea and most certainly easy on the eyes graphically. Vinnie Jr. and I had two completely different approaches and it turned out, he won by a landslide despite me being ahead most of the game. My character had a high movement value and low attack/search values, so I kept lapping the blue ring which only has four spaces. I scored the majority of my points this way, while Vinnie kept pounding at me with a high weapon’s value and earned three points with every hit. I eventually had to store anything with fame points into my cargo hold because anything on the six stat spaces kept getting destroyed. He later upgraded his search stat and moved to the red ring where he could draw an insane amount of cards which, through fame, won him the game.

What this game lacks is a manual the explains some of the concepts well. The black first player disc isn’t mentioned anywhere in the components section and there’s a gnome (?) in place of the 6 on the dice…don’t know why, but there is. I looked for some sort of special power related to this die face, but couldn’t find one. To me, it seems like the manual was half-baked…as if someone shrugged their shoulders and said, “eh, good enough”. Despite my issues with the rulebook, I would come back to this game just to see what kind of junk I’d draw next. The deck is HUGE, so there’s no way you’d be able to see everything in one sitting…hence, replayability.

I picked it up while it was on sale through the Miniature Market for about $12 and I don’t regret my purchase. I believe the MSRP is much higher, roughly $35-$40 or so, but don’t quote me on it. Amazon’s currently selling it for $17, down from $42, if the list price can be trusted.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/space-junk/feed/035588Medieval Academyhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/medieval-academy/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/medieval-academy/#respondMon, 21 Mar 2016 10:01:22 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35368If you’ve ever watched the television show “Merlin”, then you’ll know how difficult it can be to become a knight. Luckily, “Medieval Academy” is here to help you train to become one…well, sort of. You’ll have to do a number of tasks like complete quests, serve the king, and even show a sense of charity and gallantry. Only one player will be knighted, so it’s up to you to make sure you’re on top when the smoke clears.

There are a number of ways to set up the game, as players are able to make use of both basic and advanced rules. They have the option of flipping some of the boards to their advanced side instead of all of them, if they so choose. To keep things simple, I’ll cover only the basic rule set below.

To summarize game setup, the boards are placed basic side up in the center of the table and the hourglass is put on the turn one space of the parchment. The learning cards are shuffled and the coat of arms are sorted by value off to the side. Each player chooses a color, taking the tokens of that color, and places one on each of the starting spaces on the game boards. Any extras are kept in front of them. The first person to strike the most chivalrous gets the Excalibur token and goes first.

The game is played over six turns. Each turn has six phases:

1. Deal 5 learning cards to each player.

2. Draft the learning cards – Players choose one of their cards (playing it face-down in front of them) and passes the rest in the direction shown on the parchment. The direction will change depending on which turn it is. When all cards have been drafted, the five cards in front of a player goes back into their hand.

3. Play the learning cards – Beginning with the first player and going clockwise, players play one card and move the appropriate token on one of the boards. This continues until everyone has one card remaining, which is then discarded. Players who land on another player’s token are stacked on top and are considered “ahead”.

4. Scoring – Each board is scored on different turns, as noted on the board itself. Some players make gain or lose points, depending on where they are on a particular board’s track. Players receive coat of arms tokens to track their points.

5. Reset – At the end of turn three, some of the boards are reset back to “0”, meaning all of the player tokens are moved to the beginning space again.

6. Change the first player – At the end of every turn, the next player clockwise receives the Excalibur token and becomes the first player.

At the end of the sixth turn, players count up their points (via their coat of arms) and the person with the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Firstly, I have to give the game a big thumbs up for being so flexible in the number of ways one can play the game. There are not only basic and advanced rule sets, but you can choose which ones you want to include and which ones to omit. In addition, the game includes two different rule sets for two players. The first one adds a third dummy player which players alternate in controlling and the other adds an entirely new way to play the game.

With regards to the latter (called the “Lancelot/Real Deal” variant), both players control two colors and get six cards instead of five, separating them into piles of three face-down. Once done, they are revealed. Player A takes one of the two piles from Player B, with Player B receiving the one not chosen. Player B does the same (picking one from Player A to keep). Players then assign three cards to each of their colored tokens. When choosing one to activate later on, they resolve all three cards under that color as normal. I preferred this over the dummy player option, as I hate having to manage a third player who isn’t actually playing the game.

The components weren’t bad and the basic rules were fairly easy to understand. The advanced rule sets are a bit more complicated but not overly so. My advice is to try the advanced rule set on one board at a time so that you can get used to how it operates instead of trying them all at once. Of course, if you’re an experienced gamer and feel up to the challenge, feel free to dive in head first right out of the gate.

As confusing as it may appear to casual gamers (what with all the boards), you’re essentially just drafting cards and trying to move your tokens as far up as many tracks as you can. Each board scores during different turns, so choosing which boards to climb will give you some pause. I found this to be a fairly fun game. While it shines with three, four, and five players, the aforementioned “Lancelot/Real Deal” variant keeps things interesting when only two players are present. Not a bad buy at $25-$30, the current price on Amazon (as of 2/4/16).

Final Verdict: 7/10

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/medieval-academy/feed/035368Mission to Mars 2049http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/mission-to-mars-2049/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/mission-to-mars-2049/#respondThu, 10 Mar 2016 16:55:18 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35505Mars seems to be all the rage these days (and it’s about time). This might be my inner-geek talking, but space exploration and awareness seem to have taken a back seat as of late, at least here in the US. That’s a real shame, mainly because there’s so much out there that we haven’t discovered yet. “Mission to Mars 2049” doesn’t exactly get us on a shuttle to outer space, but it does envision a day where man begins to colonize Mars. Of course, they’ll need a steady supply of water, which is where the North Pole comes in. Here, players will be racing to the get to the North Pole first by building structures and managing resources. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Designer and CEO Dagnis Skurbe for reaching out and providing a press copy for review purposes.

The includes a game board, building tokens (bases, resources stations, laboratories, roads, & H2O stations), cards & resources (resource cards, resource tokens, road cards, & mission cards), one game die with different symbols on it, and a rulebook.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player starts with one base on the very edge of the planet in such a way to where they’d be as far apart as possible. Next, each player places one of each resource stations (air, food, & mineral) next to their base. They also get two of each resource card. A die roll determines who goes first.

At the beginning of a player’s turn, they’ll roll the die. If one of the three resources comes up (air, food, or minerals), then everyone receives its matching resource card. Other symbols allow you to steal cards (not tokens) from other players, receive a resource of your choice, or simply skip your turn.

After rolling the die, they can trade resources to the bank, exchange resource cards for tokens (tokens represent multiple cards), build structures/bases, and buy & play one mission card. All structures must be placed next to a base, so be sure to leave room for a new base so that you can progress towards the center. There’s no limit to how many structures you can build on a turn, so as long as you have the resources to do so.

To win the game, a player must be the first to build at least five bases, a polar road leading to the north pole (via three road cards), and finally the water extraction site itself.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Folks who have played “Settlers of Catan” will probably experience some Déjà vu right out of the gate, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For starters, players roll a die at the beginning of their turn and there’s a chance that everyone collects resources. In addition, players are building paths around the board consisting of various structures and you can even build trade depots to make the 4:1 resource trade ratio to the bank a bit cheaper…sound familiar? The rules between both games aren’t identical mind you, but anyone who’s played “Settlers of Catan” before will be able to learn the rules in almost no time at all.

With that said, there are some differences that set the game apart from “Settlers of Catan”. For example, I like the fact that you can exchange resource cards for tokens which are protected from robbery. The mission cards are pretty neat as well, coming in both a passive and aggressive deck. The passive cards, for the most part, offer resources and protection while the aggressive cards attack other players by stealing resources and blowing things up. If you go this route you’ll need to be careful, as some cards target the leader…even if that’s you!

The price per the official website as of 3/2/16 is € 39.95, which equates to roughly $43…a little pricey for a relatively simple game, I’ll admit. Why this game and “Settlers of Catan” retail for over $40 is beyond me. Yes, the components of this game are of good quality so that may have something to do with it, though penny-pinchers like myself may pass this up in favor of other Euro games that are less expensive and offer more bang for your buck. With that said, I very much enjoyed playing this game…probably because the rules and gameplay mechanics closely resemble the aforementioned “Settlers of Catan” (I prefer the Star Trek version, myself).

All things considered, “Mission to Mars 2049” is most definitely a keeper. It utilizes mechanics that make “Settlers of Catan” so popular, but offers a few twists that keeps things new and fresh. The “Did You Know” section toward the back of the manual, which is beautifully colored and laid out by the way, is a nice touch. Anyone who enjoys playing “Settlers of Catan” should probably take a look at this title, at the very least.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/mission-to-mars-2049/feed/035505Joharihttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/johari/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/johari/#respondThu, 10 Mar 2016 15:36:27 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35400This game gave me an odd sense of Déjà vu…I mean, it seemed like I had just left Jaipur having traded all my gems and acquiring a good deal of camels in the process. For those of you familiar with the two player game “Jaipur“, then you’ll know what I’m talking about. “Johari” happens to be a world famous jewelry market situated in, you guessed it, Jaipur. Your goal will be to buy and sell gems with the intent on gaining the most prestige by the end of the game. Watch out though…some of those gems are counterfeit and could land you in a bit of trouble!

Johari: 2-4 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 60 Minutes

Setup & Gameplay

Firstly, each player gets a player board and seven matching action cards of the same color. One gem token of each color is placed on the start spaces on these boards. The gem deck is shuffled and a number is dealt face-up into the store, depending on the number of players. Then, one card is drawn face-up in the bazaar stalls (the number of stalls used depends on the number of players). After that, the noble deck is constructed by randomly choosing (face-down) four cards from each of the three piles (the card backs have 1, 2, or 3 symbols on them). These twelve cards are placed on the board and two are dealt face-up on the “5” and “4” spaces. Each player placed their gold token on the 15 space on the track, stacking them in random order. Starting with the player on the bottom of the stack and going up, they’ll choose one card from either the store or bazaar to place in front of them.

The game is played over ten rounds and each round has three parts: Morning, Day, and Evening. At the beginning of each round, one card is drawn face-up for each space in the bazaar. Then, one card is drawn face-up, per player, and sorted into its spot in the store. Another noble card is drawn and the existing ones move to the right, becoming cheaper to buy.

During the Morning, Day, and Evening phases, each player will secretly choose one of their unused action cards and play it face-down, revealing them at the same time. They’ll pay the cost (minus any discounts depending on the time of day) and take the action in turn order (whoever is highest on the gold track goes first). Some actions allow players to acquire gems to place in front of them, bribe the inspector to prevent him from taking counterfeit gems you have, sell gems to either the jeweler or the collector for prestige points, and more.

As the game progresses, players will be accruing prestige points. When the last noble is placed on the track, the final round begins. After it ends, players count up how much prestige they have on their player board (per gem type) plus any cards or nobles they may have acquired. The person with the most, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Johari” struck me as a more complex version of “Jaipur”. In the latter, you and your opponent are fighting over cards from a central pool. You’re essentially doing the same here, but players have more options available to them. The action cards, for example, work the same way as in “Concordia”…that is, you can use them once but then get them back at a certain point (in this case, at the end of the day). That’s another thing I found interesting…the three phases of the day and how cards got cheaper to play as the day went on. Playing the purchasing card, for example, costs four gold. In the morning there’s no discount, so you’re paying full price. If you wait till afternoon however, you get a two gold discount. So there’s some strategy here, as being the richest also allows you to go first. Your opponents might opt to spend like mad and be last on the track, but they may scoop up all the good cards before you’ll have a chance to get to them.

The counterfeit gem mechanics are interesting too. Some of those gems cards can look really appealing, but you run the risk of losing a counterfeit card when someone else initiates a particular action. Scoring took some getting used to, as you either sell four gems of different types and choose one to score, or sell gems of all one type and subtracting your total sold from the person who has the second most of that gem. Prestige can be earned via cards too that come up in addition to the gems, so there are a few different paths to victory.

I personally liked this one. I like the simplicity of “Jaipur”, don’t get me wrong, but this game supports up to four players and adds a bit more oomph to the idea of selling gems for victory points. I didn’t like that the game has no box insert nor did it come with baggies for the little gems and cards. I highly suggest using some as there are a LOT of cards that’ll get flipped and mixed around while the box is closed and moved around. You can find it on Amazon for about $30, making it a tad pricey for my tastes…still, it’s worth picking up.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/johari/feed/035400The Gamehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-game/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-game/#respondMon, 07 Mar 2016 12:11:23 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35520Think you have what it takes to beat, “The Game”? It’s a cooperative card laying game that tasks players with getting rid of as many cards as possible by laying them across four piles. Two piles start at “1” and any future cards must be higher in value, while the other two piles start at “100” and any future cards must be lower in value. The exception is that you can play a card that goes in the opposite direction, but only if it’s “10” more/less than what’s showing. The pile still maintains the original direction, but it’s a way to get your pile back to where it originally started. Each player also has to play a minimum of two cards per turn, so there’s sure to be a lot of wincing when you’re forced to play some bad cards. What’s worse, communication between players is quite limited.

Due to time constraints (I have a few Kickstarter previews to get to), I’ve opted to put the rules and review in video format. Enjoy!

Editor’s Note: Try playing with an eight or nine card hand limit if your group wants an easier game.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-game/feed/035520Epic Rollhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/epic-roll/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/epic-roll/#respondSun, 06 Mar 2016 13:35:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35481In the mood to beat the snot out of a fearsome Lich, but don’t have three hours to spend building up a character to do it? Perhaps you should take a look at “Epic Roll”, a game that supports two to three players. Each player will choose a character (Wizard, Warrior, or Elf) and battle for their lives by rolling dice against enemy mobs like skeletons and ghouls in order to gain the items they’ll need to defeat the Lich. Before we get started, I’d like to thank Matt Nord, the Co-Founder of Summon Entertainment, for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

2-3 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 15-20 Minutes

Components

The game includes a game board, three hero dice (one for each class), two encounter dice (basic and advanced), two monster dice (basic and advanced), two power dice (hero and monster), three glass hero counters, two glass health counters, twenty treasure cards, and an instruction booklet.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player will start by choosing a class and receiving the die of that color. Players also take the matching glass hero counter and place it on the board’s matching start space. The treasure cards are shuffled and placed off to the side. The Wizard takes the first turn, followed by the Warrior, then the Elf. In the event of a two player game, the third character’s pieces (whatever class wasn’t chosen) will not be used.

On a player’s turn, they’ll begin by resetting their health to the “6” position on the hero health meter via a health counter. Then…

1. Advance the Hero – The player moves their active hero to the next space (left to right).

2. Encounter a Monster – When a space is marked by crossed-swords, the player rolls the basic monster encounter die to discover what foe they’ll be facing. The advanced encounter & monster dice are used when the hero gets past the “Level Up!” space on the board, though the hero gains a power die to use as well. The health counter is placed on the appropriate starting health value on the monster health meter.

3. Fight a Battle! – The player rolls both the hero and monster dice together, adjusting the health counters as appropriate based on their results. Treasure cards can be used/discarded to help you win battles, though your maximum hand limit is two.

4. Determine the Battle’s Outcome – The hero will either win or lose the battle. If the hero wins the battle by having one or more health remaining at the end of the battle, they’ll draw a treasure card and add it to their hand. In the event that the hero is defeated, they are returned their starting position on the far left and lose any cards they may be holding (a hero returns to the “Level Up!” space if they passed it earlier). They begin questing again on their next turn. The player can choose to flee rather than die by moving back a space, but the monster gets one last attack (the monster die is rolled by itself).

5. Continue On, or End the Turn – The player may choose to take another turn with the health they have now, or end their turn (they’ll gain full health on their next turn).

The first player to defeat the Lich (who has his own power die) is the winner!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Epic Roll” is certainly simple enough to learn and play, so the 14+ age requirement listed on the box is more for the benefit of parents who may have younger children who like to put things in their mouths. I’d say that a semi-mature eight-year-old could play this game…it’s that easy to play. You’re essentially rolling dice against monsters and choosing whether or not to push your luck by immediately taking another turn should you win. Of course, your health doesn’t reset back to “6” until your next turn, so choose wisely.

I do like the fact that each character class has a different die, complete with different die results on the faces. The wizard die (blue) is like a glass cannon, capable of doing tons of damage but lacks defense and accuracy (blanks result in a miss). The warrior die (red) has a balance of attack and defense, while the elf die (green) is the most consistent but lacks the high damage potential found on the wizard and warrior dice. In addition to that, you’ll get a white power die when you “Level Up!”…meaning you get to use a special unique ability every time a star is rolled. The wizard’s power is “block”, the warrior’s power is “heal”, and the elf’s power is “hit”. The Lich’s, just as a side note, is to “heal”.

The components are sharp in terms of color scheme and the artwork is well done. The gameplay felt equally good and while luck-based dice rolling games are sometimes unfair, there is some strategy in choosing whether or not to retreat, use a treasure card, and etc. I just wished that the game supported more players, especially since there are five of us in the house. I also had a slight problem with the “elf”…which is technically a race and not a class. While the wizard and warrior are both classes, I felt that “rogue” or “ranger” would have been better than “elf”. Since this is a casual game I can live with it, though more classes and an increased player count would have been nice.

All in all, “Epic Roll” is a fairly decent dice rolling game that’s both quick and easy to play. You’ll find it for $25 (as of 2/29/16) via the official website (link below), which I believe is fair for what you’re getting here.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/epic-roll/feed/035481Hostage Negotiatorhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hostage-negotiator/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hostage-negotiator/#respondFri, 04 Mar 2016 10:22:00 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35355Things aren’t looking too good for the hostages. Not only is the captor pissed off, but you’re running out of time in meeting their demands. In this single player game, you’re exactly what the name of the game suggests, a hostage negotiator. Through buying cards and by rolling dice, you’ll attempt to defuse the situation and hopefully bring everyone out alive. Are you up to the challenge? Only time (and some luck with the dice) will tell.

Firstly, the player will choose (or randomly pick) an abductor card which is placed to the left of the tableau. The second in command card is then placed underneath. The major demands and escape demand decks are shuffled separately, with the appropriate number being dealt face-down above the tableau…the rest are discarded without looking. The yellow hostage pieces and remaining tokens are placed in their appropriate spaces. The red terror deck is shuffled and ten are dealt face-down, with one random gold pivotal terror card placed on the bottom of that deck. The player gets the six starter conversation cards to form their starting hand. The rest are sorted into piles by type.

The game is broken up over a series of turns and each turn has three phases:

1. Conversation Phase – Where you play and resolve cards from your hand to influence the threat level, earn conversation points, and save hostages. Most of these cards are resolved via a die roll. The lower the threat level (green, yellow, red), the more dice you can roll.

2. Spend Phase – Where you spend conversation points earned this turn on cards available in the pool. You cannot play cards played during the conversation phase. Some cards are worth “0” but again, you’d only be able to buy them every other turn as you can’t buy cards played that turn. Once you’re done buying cards for your next turn, the conversation points are reset to “0” and you’ll place any played cards back into the buying pool.

3. Terror Phase – A terror card is revealed and resolved. If no more cards are in this deck, then ALL the hostages are killed and you lose the game.

The game continues until it ends in either victory or defeat.

Victory – ALL of the following must be true:

1. There are no hostages left in the pool.

2. At least half of the hostages were saved.

3. The abductor has been captured or eliminated.

Defeat – ONE of the following must be true:

1. More than half of the hostages have been killed.

2. The abductor escapes.

3. You’re unable to draw a terror card.

If the abductor is eliminated before the hostage pool is empty, the second in command card is revealed and has special rules regarding their behavior.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

This is one of the more interesting solo games I’ve played, though it admittedly does require a lot of luck. You’re rolling dice constantly and after so many bad rolls, it’s almost impossible to dig yourself out of the hole the dice have made for you. Yes, there is some strategy in buying up particular cards with conversation points, but again, that’s assuming the dice are kind to you. You could, in theory, make your own “easy mode” by automatically reducing the number needed to roll by 1 to give yourself better odds. I plan to test this out to see if it breaks the game at all.

I had no complaints with the components and the manual was pretty easy to understand. While this game as advertised as a single player game, I don’t see why two or three people couldn’t team up and talk out their plan of action (like what cards to buy, etc.). I have a feeling I’ll be doing something like that with Vinnie Jr. once I get a few more games under my belt. The price of $20-$25 (the price on Amazon as of 2/4/16) isn’t bad, so if you’re looking for a new solo game to try, give this one a spin. It’s not easy, but most solo games rarely are.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/hostage-negotiator/feed/035355Brew Crafters: The Travel Card Gamehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brew-crafters-the-travel-card-game/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brew-crafters-the-travel-card-game/#respondWed, 02 Mar 2016 10:30:42 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35441I don’t drink beer. It’s foul, nasty, and leads to all sorts of problems…physical and legally, to name a few. Have a mixed berry smoothie with a scoop of whey protein instead. I’m having one right now, in fact. It’s okay to be jealous, I won’t hold it against you. “Brew Crafters: The Travel Card Game” is a lighter version of the board game “Brew Crafters” (which I admittedly haven’t played) that tasks players with earning reputation points by brewing beer. I’m okay with that, seeing as how I don’t have to drink any of it after the fact. Blech.

It’s worth noting right out of the gate that you’ll have to pair off into teams if you have four players and the rules will be slightly different. To keep things simple, I’ll opt to overview the 2-3 player standard game.

Each player gets a scorecard and token for tracking rep points. The deck is shuffled and each player gets four cards to form their starting hand. Then, five are dealt face-up next to the deck to form the draw pool. Be sure to leave room for a face-up discard pile stack next to the deck. The person who most recently consumed a beer gets the start player card and goes first.

On a player’s turn, they’ll first draw two cards from either the face-down deck or from the available face-up pool. After drawing two cards, they’ll replace any taken from the pool by drawing from the deck.

After that, they can either play one card in front of them for its special effect (which persists for the rest of the game), discard cards to brew beer and earn rep, or pass. Players may substitute two matching ingredients to replace one ingredient they’re missing. The special effect on cards played for brewing are ignored.

At the end of a player’s turn, they’ll discard down to seven cards and play proceeds clockwise. The game ending condition is triggered when someone gets 21 points. Turns proceed until everyone has had an equal number of turns and whoever has the most after that, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Brew Crafters: The Travel Card Game” is fairly simplistic as travel games go, though there was a small amount of strategy to the game. I was always debating whether or not to brew beer or to lay down cards so that I could receive some sort of passive benefit for the rest of the game. For example, having an ale and porter specialist in front of me early on would probably be a good idea if I kept seeing the ingredients necessary to craft either beer come up in the pool. Some cards, like the employee manager, score you bonus rep at the game’s end.

This clearly opens the door for multiple ways to play. One might opt to brew as much as they can, dedicating all of their cards as ingredients in the hopes of climbing the rep ladder like Speedy Gonzales. On the other hand, having a bunch of passive abilities will make brewing and earning points easier over the long haul. It’s up to you to determine which strategy is more effective as you’re playing the game.

I personally think that this game is simply OK for two or three players…not so much for four. I’m just not a fan of team games and I wish there were enough cards so that four people could play without the need for teams. The card effects are also few and far between, meaning that players will more than likely end up with the same cards in front of them by the end of the game. That aside, the art is pretty good and the price reasonable at about $15 on Amazon as of 2/22/16. While I haven’t played the board game to know if this travel version stays true to the formula, I somewhat enjoyed playing it nonetheless. There are certainly other card games out on the market that do fillers better and support more players.

Final Verdict: 5/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/brew-crafters-the-travel-card-game/feed/035441Lucky Numbershttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/lucky-numbers/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/lucky-numbers/#respondMon, 29 Feb 2016 01:59:32 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35475Fancy yourself as a person who is good with numbers? Can you look at a nearby jumble of numbers and quickly come up with the best way to organize a grid? Then you may want to give “Lucky Numbers” a go. Essentially, you’re trying to be the first player to completely fill up your grid…though the columns and rows have to go from low to high starting from the top left to the bottom right, respectively. Due to time constraints and medical issues, I’ll opt to let the below video do the talking. In summary, it’s a pretty cool family game that’s relatively cheap to boot.

Final Verdict: 7/10

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/lucky-numbers/feed/035475Deep Sea Adventurehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/deep-sea-adventure/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/deep-sea-adventure/#respondMon, 29 Feb 2016 00:57:16 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35472“Deep Sea Adventure” is a semi-cooperative push-your-luck diving game that tasks players with collecting as many treasures/points as possible in order to win the game. It’s semi-cooperative in the sense that players share an oxygen supply and the more treasures a player has, the more oxygen that depletes from the shared pool on their turn. Due to time constraints and medical reasons, I’m opting to simply let the video below do the talking. I will say however that we really enjoyed this one and will most likely play it again on family game night.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/deep-sea-adventure/feed/035472Best Games for Family Game Night (as featured on GEICO More)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/best-games-for-family-game-night-as-featured-on-geico-more/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/best-games-for-family-game-night-as-featured-on-geico-more/#respondThu, 25 Feb 2016 15:54:26 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35463A few months ago I was approached by Kristen Koch / Associate Editor on behalf of GEICO More regarding my top board game picks for family game night. It looks like they published the article, which you can find here:

As a side note, they seemed to have omitted and shortened some of my entries…I apparently had a lot to say. I included my full Q&A below for anyone who wants to read everything I provided. All of the games referenced below include a review, which can be found by clicking on the “Board Games” tab on the top of the page.

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Q: What are five or six games from any year that you’d say are best for families to play together?

Ticket to Ride (2-5 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 45-60 Minutes) – “Ticket to Ride” is probably one of the most played games in my household. Gameplay is as easy as drawing cards of varying colors and then playing those cards to create routes between cities to earn points. Players get secret destination tickets that allow them to earn bonus points for connecting two distant cities. It’s a light set-collecting, area control game that should be in everyone’s collection. Newcomers should stick with the original USA version, as the Europe and subsequent expansions introduce more concepts and mechanics that make the game slightly more complex.

Settlers of Catan (3-4 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 75 Minutes) – “Settlers of Catan” makes resource collecting extremely easy, for those of you who enjoy resource management and building stuff. What’s so great about “Settlers” is that when a die is rolled, ANYONE can receive resources regardless of whose turn it is. With those resources, you’ll build roads and settlements across a numbered grid to earn victory points. “Settlers” comes with a number of expansions too, for those of you who want more gameplay options. While the core game is ideal for three or four players, it is possible to play with just two.

Apples to Apples (4+ Players, Ages 7+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes) – There are a number of games out on the market that mimic what “Apples to Apples” does, but this one is probably the most recognizable. “Apples to Apples” allows you to be as serious or as silly as you want to be…in our house, we always choose the latter. It’s just more fun that way. It’s easy to set up and clean up too, making it ideal for busy weeknights. There are a number of versions of “Apples to Apples” out there (Jr., Big Picture, etc.), so check the box for specifics.

Roll For It! (2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20-40 Minutes) – “Roll For It!” is an incredibly simple dice game with a small element of strategy mixed in for good measure. Players only have six dice a piece and their goal is to assign the dice they roll to the cards currently in play by matching the values. Sounds easy…but with only six dice, you’ll have to pick and choose which cards to go after while the other players attempt to win said cards by doing the same thing. The casual players that I know really enjoy this one. There’s a separate red and purple version of the game and combining both allows you to play with up to eight players.

Blokus (2-4 Players, Ages 5+, Average Play Time = 15-30 Minutes) – Where “Roll For It!” involves a bit of luck with the dice, “Blokus” is 100% abstract and WILL flex your brain muscles a bit. Using “Tetris-like” pieces, you’ll be competing with other players to lay down as many of your pieces onto the shared board as you can. There’s a catch…your own pieces can’t touch directly. Rather, they can only touch diagonally. This game is perfect for people who want to learn pure abstract games like “Chess” but find all the rules and pieces of such games a bit too intimidating.

Splendor (2-4 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes) – “Splendor” is one of my favorite games of all time. The components are top-notch & beautiful to look at and the gameplay is deceptively simple. Gameplay is as easy as collecting tokens of varying colors and then using these tokens to buy cards. These cards not only give you victory points, but also help you in buying some of the more expensive cards. I can’t recommend this game enough.

What are four or five games from 2015 that you’d say are best for families to play together?

Machi Koro: Deluxe Edition (2-5 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes) – The Deluxe Edition includes the core game and two expansions. Essentially, it’s a city-builder / deck-builder, but not in the way you’d expect…in fact it’s much simpler. The game includes cards with numbers on them, which in turn activate on a die roll. Like “Settlers of Catan”, every player cashes in on a die roll no matter whose turn it is, assuming they have the card of the matching value. The object is to earn money and be the first to be your landmarks, though buying more cards from the supply will increase your chances of cashing in with every die roll. The expansions add a lot of variety to the game, giving it a ton of replay value.

Dragonwood (2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes) – If you like to slay dragons but are afraid that D&D may be too much for your kids, then give “Dragonwood” a whirl. Players will be using both card combinations and dice to capture & defeat nasty creatures like gooey blobs and spooky spiders. Ultimately, players will be going after the bigger prize: dragons. It plays relatively quickly…in fact you’ll probably get an entire game in before you could get done just setting up a D&D character.

Lanterns: The Harvest Festival (2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes) – This is a tile-laying game that is similar to “Carcassonne”, but much more colorful. Instead of laying down meeples on roads and castles, you’ll be laying down tiles to collect colored cards. These cards can form sets which you then turn in for victory points. The kick is that these square tiles have colors on all four faces and ALL players receive cards when you play a tile, based on which color is facing them. “Lanterns: The Harvest Festival” is one of the best tile-laying / set-collecting games I’ve played this year.

Letter Tycoon (2-5 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30-45 Minutes) – I have a lot of word / educational games in my collection, but “Letter Tycoon” does something they don’t…that is, it includes a mechanic that allows players to own patents on a letter. In addition to spelling words to earn coins (which also act as victory points), players can buy patents on letters in order to cash in anytime someone uses them to spell a word. In addition, the lesser-used letters like “Z” and “X” have special abilities, making it viable to buy patents for them. “Letter Tycoon” is both educational and different, making it easy to recommend.

Runner-Ups: Rolling America (dice), Arboretum (cards)

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What do you look for in a good family game? What makes you pick up one game over another?

Here’s the thing…everyone has different tastes in games. Some people like casual games while others like heavy-duty strategy games. You’ve also got games that feature deck-building, dice-rolling, set-collecting, area control…you get the idea. Honestly, it can be a bit overwhelming, especially to the uninitiated.

First and foremost, it pays to do your homework. Look for a scanned rulebook of the game you’re interested in by Googling, “X Board Game Rules PDF” or something similar. Browsing through the rulebook will tell you how many players the game supports, what ages are recommended, what the average play time is, and what mechanics the it uses. All of these things help me to determine whether or not I want to make the purchase (or in my case, request a review copy). If you can’t find the rulebook, look for review sites like mine that covers the game in detail.

In my opinion, a good family game is one that has no mature themes and can be played in less than an hour…preferably a half hour. I personally like games that are easy to learn but have a moderate amount of strategic depth to them…that is, you’ll be thinking more about what your best move is as opposed to flipping through the rulebook just trying to figure out what you are actually allowed to do.

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What are some common features of games that have become favorites for your family?

It depends on who’s playing. If it’s just Vinnie and me, then we’ll play almost anything. The rest of the family are casual gamers and when they’re involved, we seem to play a lot of lighter games that involve dice, cards, and/or general silliness. That translates to many games of “Ticket to Ride”, “Say Anything”, “Apples to Apples”, “Sheriff of Nottingham”, “Roll For It!”, and “Lost Cities” (just to name a few).

Why would you recommend playing games as a family activity?

Like watching television and reading books, games are a form of entertainment. What’s wonderful about this particular form of entertainment is that there’s something out there for everyone, even if you don’t consider yourself a “gamer”. Gaming allows everyone in the house to interact with one another directly, whether it be cooperatively or competitively. Games, depending on which ones you’re playing, can encourage critical thinking, lighten the mood, get everyone talking about a particular subject, and more. The trick is finding a game that you and your family will like and with all of the choices out on the market, it can admittedly take a while especially if you haven’t found your group’s preferred genre. My advice is to stick with it until you do and better yet, ask someone who’s been around the “board” for recommendations.

Do you have any tips on being a gracious winner or loser?

Let’s face it, no one likes to lose. I was an extremely sore loser when I was a child, mainly because I wanted others to recognize how good I actually was at something…as if I needed their approval or had something to prove. Whether you’re playing games or competing in some other event, it’s important to remember that it’s not about winning or losing. Rather, it’s the journey, the people you meet, and the things you learn that really matter. We’re only human and life is too short to get upset or angry over something like losing a game. After all, a game (at its heart) is meant to be a form of entertainment. If you’re flipping tables while playing a game, then you’re doing “it” wrong.

With that said, being a good loser takes time. Good losers are wise enough to recognize that no matter how awesome they think they are at something, that there’s probably someone out there better than them. More importantly, real losers put aside their grief and learn from their mistakes…not because they want to beat the pants off somebody, but because they want to better themselves. Good winners are those who are both humble and sensitive enough to be considerate of someone else’s feelings. The trick is not to come across as smug or omnipotent while you talk about the game you played after the fact. Lastly, whether you’re in a friendly or competitive game, always throw in a “GLHF”…which is short in the video game world for “good luck and have fun!”

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/best-games-for-family-game-night-as-featured-on-geico-more/feed/035463Arcadeopoly: The Card Gamehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/arcadeopoly-the-card-game/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/arcadeopoly-the-card-game/#respondSat, 20 Feb 2016 17:33:19 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35364It’s very unfortunate that arcades are becoming less and less of a thing as I get older. Sure, you can go to Dave and Busters, Chuck E Cheese, or a Replay FX event, but there used to be way more options when I was growing up. “Arcadeopoly: The Card Game” themes itself around those arcade machines we used to know and love. Here, you’ll be trying to earn quarters by owning and operating your own arcade cabinets. Of course, your opponents are out to do the same thing. Before we press player one to start, I’d like to thank Eric Park from Park Productions for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Arcadeopoly: The Card Game – 2-4 Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Components

The game includes 54 cards and 4 counters.

Setup & Gameplay

Firstly, players will place the sixteen owners manuals cards and the three rule cards face-up, off to one side. The three money track cards are laid out, with each player’s counter starting on the thirty quarters space. The thirty-two card game deck is shuffled and each player gets one face-up. The player with the highest quarters value on their card goes first. These cards are shuffled back into the deck, then each player is dealt four face-down cards to form their starting hand.

During a player’s turn, they’ll choose one card from their hand to place into the discard pile with play continuing clockwise. Once a player’s last card has been played, they may repair one of their games if needed and then draw four cards from the draw pile to refresh their hand. They can also repair by playing that game’s play card and paying one quarter (by moving their token backward along the track. Should the draw pile ever become empty, the discard pile is shuffled (along with the top games pile) to form a new draw pile.

Throughout the game, players will be collecting owners manual cards (which are visible to all player). These represent the games in their arcade. Should a game go out of order, it is flipped to the other side. The draw pile (game deck) consists of a few different card types: Play, Free Cabinet, Game Crash, Top Games, and various cards that either earn you or make you lose quarters.

Play cards are the primary way of gaining cabinets (owners manual cards) and earning money, though you can lose money if you play a play card of a cabinet that belongs to your opponent. When a play card is played and someone else owns the listed game, they’ll pay the owner the cost shown. If the owner owns both games of that color or it is a top game, then the cost is doubled. If the play card lists a game that you own or if its out of order, then you’ll simply play another card. If no one owns the game listed on the play card, the player buys the game (putting the owners manual card in front of them) and pays the cost.

The free cabinet card allows the player to take one unowned owners manual shown on the card. If both are owned, then they’ll take one from the owner (unless they are grouped cabinets). In the case of grouped cabinets or if the player already owns both, then they play another card. Game crash cards allow a player to flip an opponent’s owners manual card over so that it is out of order, though they must crash their own if no one else has any to flip. If the card is played and no one can flip anything, then the player plays another card. The top games card, when played, goes on top of the top games pile (it’s a separate pile) and any games shown on the card earns double. The grouped cabinets and top games bonuses do not stack. When one game in a grouped cabinet needs repaired, they revert to single cabinets and thus can change owners and be top games.

Players continue until one player reaches the green dot on the score track, or when someone falls off the track by losing all their money. The player with the most money at that point, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I’d like to start by getting my gripes out of the way. The manual is a bit confusing and I had to read it several times in order to understand how some of the concepts came together. In addition, I don’t understand why the arcade cabinets are referred to as “owners manuals cards”. If they represent the games in your arcade, then why not call them “arcade cabinet cards”? One of the cards, “Level 1”, forces you to go back to level 1 (has no effect on the game) and makes you lose three quarters. I’m not sure how being forced to go back to level one would make a video gamer in real life be forced to pay money…unless it meant that the player died in-game and pumped in more quarters to continue playing. I just felt the labeling of this card to be a bit off.

On a positive note, I absolutely love the theme. I mean, who wouldn’t want to own their own arcade? I like how you can group like-cabinets together, safeguarding them somewhat from other players and doubling their cost when played. It reminds me a bit of “Monopoly” that way, though it is possible to lose one or both cabinets if one breaks and the game changes hands before repairs can be made. It’s also a bit like “Monopoly” in the sense that you’re trying to acquire as many property cards as possible…well, in this case, “owners manual cards”…in order to increase the odds of someone playing your cabinets and paying you money. The top games mechanic is a nice touch and I like that the games in question can rotate, depending on what card is on top of the deck at the present time.

“Arcadeopoly: The Card Game” is exactly what the name implies…”Monopoly” turned into a card game but with an arcade theme. While it has flaws, the overall idea is sound and the play time is pretty short to boot. You can find it on The Game Crafter for about $15, making it a fairly good value for what you’re getting here.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/arcadeopoly-the-card-game/feed/035364Fusehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/fuse/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/fuse/#respondFri, 19 Feb 2016 23:11:38 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35421Ten minutes may seem like a long time. Sometimes waiting ten minutes for the bus in the rain can seem like an eternity. Of course, if you’re defusing bombs, I have a feeling those ten minutes will fly right on by before you know it. In “Fuse”, players will be communicating and working together to defuse the required number of bombs (based on difficulty and number of players) before the timer runs out. Will you crack under the pressure, or successfully pull off this daring and virtually life threatening attempt?

Fuse: 1-5 Players, Ages 13+, Average Playing Time = 10 Minutes

Components

The game includes 25 Dice, 54 Bomb Cards, 22 FUSE Cards, 1 Large Dice Bag, 1 Rule Book, and a FREE Download – Ship’s Computer Timer app. If you cannot download the app, then any ten minute timer will do.

Setup & Gameplay

There are a number of ways to set up the game, depending on whether or not you’re using the advanced bomb cards or an alternate setup variant found in the manual. To keep things moving, I’ll opt to touch on the core rules without all the fluff, variants, and more difficult cards.

First, players will want to separate the bomb cards from the fuse cards, then take out the double stack and pyramid cards from the bomb deck (as they make the game more difficult). The bomb cards are shuffled and two are dealt out face-up to each player (in a solitaire game, deal four to yourself). The two that are dealt to each player must include at least one “1” or “2” point card (in a solitaire game, you must have three different value cards).

Then, a number of bomb cards are dealt to form the actual deck (based on difficulty and number of players) with the rest put back into the box. Five cards are drawn from that deck, face-up, to form a pool. Then, six random fuse cards are shuffled into the bomb deck. All twenty-five dice are placed in the bag and someone is chosen to receive said bag to be the starting player. If you don’t have the app, set any timer for ten minutes and begin when ready.

Once the game starts, the player with the bag of dice will draw one for each player in the game and roll them. Each player will then choose one, communicating as needed. In a two player game, four dice are drawn/rolled and each player receives two. In a solitaire game, draw/roll three. With the die or dice chosen, the players will place them onto their bomb cards within accordance to their rules. A “# – # = 2” card, for example, requires two dice whose difference equals two. Some spaces require a certain color or number, or perhaps either or. Stack and pyramid cards are a bit more difficult and require the dice to be arranged in a particular order.

If a die cannot be placed, it is rolled. Then, each player must remove one die on their bomb card that matches the color of the die or the number rolled. If a player completes a bomb card, it goes into a score pile and said player chooses a new card from the pool, drawing a new card from the deck to replace it. If a fuse card is drawn, it is instantly activated, discarded, and replaced with a new card. Fuse cards force players to discard dice on their bomb cards, based on the color or number shown.

The game continues with players drawing, choosing, and placing dice, passing the dice bag clockwise after every round. If they manage to defuse all the bombs before the timer runs out, they win! As a special note, players only need to defuse all the bombs from the middle of the table…the two in their possession, at the end of the game, turns out to be duds. Players can also score the cards and record their totals in the back of the rulebook.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

As cooperative games go, this one is pretty fun. While the manual doesn’t mention this, you COULD increase your time limit to say, fifteen minutes to give yourself and your group a more casual experience. It’ll take away the suspense factor slightly, but it’ll no doubt appeal to the casual crowd and to those unfamiliar with the game. I don’t know about you, but I hate to feel rushed while learning how to play something. Alternatively, you could give yourself less time, though it’s easier to simply increase the difficulty level by adding more bomb cards.

I like that players have more ways to make the game more challenging, such as the inclusion of stack and pyramid cards. With these two types of cards, you’ll have to put the dice down in a particular order making it harder to complete them. There’s also a few variants listed in the back of the rulebook that suggest how the game could be set up differently. For example, players could seed the deck ahead of time with 1-4 point cards (4 being most difficult) as they see fit. For an easier time, they could include more 1-2 point cards. Next, the bomb cards could each go into their own pile sorted by point value or as a single deck as described in basic setup.

“Fuse” can be found for about $20-$25 (the price on Amazon as of 2/18/19), making it a fairly good buy if you’re into cooperative games that encourage a lot of communication. Timed games always bug me because I hate being rushed, but that can be easily resolved by adding more time to the timer (I prefer to use my iPhone’s built in clock timer as opposed to downloading the app, but that’s just me).

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/fuse/feed/035421Stockpilehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/stockpile/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/stockpile/#respondWed, 17 Feb 2016 21:20:23 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35287I’m not much of a risk taker, to be honest with you. The only time I gamble is when I’m playing with virtual pretend money, giving me the opportunity to lose it all and instantly replenish my funds with the press of a button. It would be awesome if the real world worked that way, wouldn’t it? I’m even less familiar with the stock market, but that’s okay…”Stockpile” doesn’t require you to be a Wall Street guru in order to play it. Let’s take a quick peek at the rules so I can show you what I mean.

Game setup various somewhat depending on whether or not you use some or all of the advanced rules and whether or not you have two players playing the game. As such, I’ll briefly state that each player gets a bidding meeple (two in a two player game), player board, a different stock card from the market deck (which is placed in their portfolio), and some starting money (default is $20,000). There are six company cards and six forecast cards…they’ll be shuffled into separate piles and placed off to the right of the main board. The turn marker and stock tickers go on their appropriate starting spaces. The player who paid the most for their previous meal gets the first player token. There are some advanced rules that you can include, like flipping the board over to the advanced side, using character cards, and etc.

The game is played over a series of rounds (depends on the number of players). Play proceeds clockwise throughout a round and the first player token is passed to the next player (clockwise)when the round is over. Each round has six phases:

1. Information Phase – Each player receives a company Card (listing one of the six companies) and a forecast Card (a plus or minus value), clueing them in as to how one of the six company’s stock price will change during the movement phase. These cards are hidden from the other players. Then, as public information, one company card and one forecast card are drawn face-up. In a two player game, each player receives two pairs of company / forecast cards and the other two remain face-down (no public knowledge).

2. Supply Phase – Firstly, one card is dealt from the deck face-up for each stockpile (underneath the calculators). Each player places receives two cards from the deck, then placing them into stockpiles of their choosing in turn order. One card is placed face-up while the other is placed face-down. In a two player game, both players do this twice. Stockpiles represent the market supply, and they are bid on and obtained during the Demand Phase.

3. Demand Phase – In turn order, players bid with their meeple on the numbered spaces (on the calculator) above each stockpile. If outbid, that player removes their meeple and can bid again on their next turn. Once everyone has bid, everyone pays the bank and receives the stockpile they won. Any stock cards obtained are placed face-down into their portfolio.

4. Action Phase – In turn order, players use all of their action cards (if any) obtained during the demand phase.

5. Selling Phase – In turn order, players may sell any number of stocks that they have obtained by placing them face-up in the discard pile and collecting money from the bank equal to the stock’s current value for each stock. Stocks sold from a player’s split portfolio pay two times the value of the stock.

6. Movement Phase – In turn order, players reveal their company cards and forecast cards and move the stock values accordingly. Move the remaining stock values according to the face-up and face-down pairs of company cards and forecast cards on top of and next to the board. All stocks will be affected every round. The forecast card labeled “$$” means a company pays out dividends. The stock value does not change. Instead, each player immediately receives $2,000 for each share of that company’s stock in his/her portfolio, assuming they choose to reveal that they have it.

If a stock’s value ever increases to more than 10, the stock splits. A stock split effectively doubles your existing shares for that stock (2x pile). The value of that stock returns to 6. If a stock’s value ever moves below 1 on a turn, it immediately goes bankrupt. All players discard all stock of that kind that they own, including any stocks in their split portfolio. Return the stock’s price to the starting value of 5.

Rounds continue until a number of turns have expired. All players reveal the stocks in their portfolios and receive $10,000 if they are the majority shareholder for a particular company (have the most stock cards). Stocks in the 2x pile are worth two cards. Each player then sells their stock cards at the price listed. Players then add up their currency and whoever has the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Despite my edition’s crappy components, “Acquire” holds a special place in my collection because of how well it plays and depicts a company’s growth or decline. I felt the same way about “Stockpile”, with the exception of the components bit because they are indeed superb. “Stockpile” does an excellent job of introducing the idea of stock market practices without getting caught up in specific, nitty-gritty details. In other words, it helped me to educate Vinnie Jr. on the basics of how the stock market works. It also works well as a two player game, which surprises me as a lot of stock market themed games generally work better with three or more players.

In addition, the game includes a number of advanced rules or expansions that can be includes should players choose to use them. Character/Investor cards, for example, define a player’s starting money and give them special abilities. In a two player game, each player gets two. There’s also two sides to the main board…the basic side having all companies sharing the same valued tracks. On the advanced flip side, each company’s track is different. There are also dividend spaces that award players $1,000 (double for 2x) for each stock they own of that company.

The insider information part of the game was also pretty interesting. Each player gets private knowledge on one company’s trend at the beginning of every round, so it’ll make you wonder when your opponent decides to bid on or sell stock cards of a certain type. Perhaps they know something you don’t? If your opponent is selling a particular stock like mad, then perhaps they know that the price is about to drop. Of course, they could be bluffing and trying to get you to sell everything you have of that stock so that they can get the majority bonus at the end of the game (by not selling all of that stock).

Stockpile is an excellent game, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Fans of “Acquire” or other stock market themed games will do well to pick this one up. The price is fairly hefty at about $50 (as of 1/28/16), but if you can afford to pick it up, I recommend doing so.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/stockpile/feed/035287PRESS RELEASE: “Aether Captains” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-aether-captains-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-aether-captains-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondThu, 11 Feb 2016 11:45:36 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35016Are you a fan of steampunk themed games? Enjoy blowing pirates out of the sky during airship battles? Then “Aether Captains”, a game seeking your support on Kickstarter, may just be what you’re looking for. This game is scenario-based, tasking one player with surviving against a wave of air pirates (who are controlled by the other players). The player who takes up this challenge will get a mighty zeppelin filled with gun emplacements and other goodies, though the pirates will each have their own objective to complete. “Aether Captains” is dice heavy and takes about twenty to thirty minutes to play. Want to read about my experiences with the game? Go check out my written preview before heading on over to the game’s Kickstarter page.

Alexander Argyropoulos from MAGE Company LTD offered the following:

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“Aether Captains i​s a steampunk themed, scenario ­based, asymmetric board game for 2 to 5 players. One player commands the mighty naval zeppelins of the Grand Compact. With your staunch crew of steam welders, engineers, navigators and gunners, you have been tasked by the Emperor to defend the Grand Compact from the merciless sky pirates. The remaining players command waves of attacking sky pirates, each with their own unique objectives which may pit them against any player when it results in the greatest profit for themselves. We are also happy to announce that the ship minis for the game are produced by Soda Pop Miniatures!”

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You can learn more about and support “Aether Captains” by visiting its Kickstarter page, here:

It appears that funding was cancelled shortly after the posting of this article. According to the updates section of the Kickstarter page, the campaign will be relaunched in about a few months to give the developers time to refine some aspects of the game.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-aether-captains-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/035016Best Treehouse Everhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/best-treehouse-ever/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/best-treehouse-ever/#respondSat, 06 Feb 2016 00:28:16 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35353I never owned a treehouse when I was a kid…I was too busy playing games anyway. Sure, I’d go outside once in a while and play football, basketball, or street hockey, though nothing satisfied me more than beating a tough game on the ol’ NES or bringing out “Fireball Island” and burning adventurers alive. “Best Treehouse Ever” makes up for that, sort of. I mean, I’m still playing a game inside the home, but that’s basically the same thing as having a real treehouse, right? Sure, let’s go with that. In this light strategy/drafting game, players will earn points for building a treehouse. The more efficiently they match colored rooms, the more points they’ll earn. So who’s ready to build the best treehouse ever?

Best Treehouse Ever: 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes

Components

The game includes 72 room cards, 4 starting tree cards, 3 scoretrack cards, 6 scoring cards, 4 scoring tokens/score track tokens, 4 balance cubes, 4 game changer and rules. There are also 6 bonus cards that can be used in the advanced game, scoring players points if they match the configurations shown on their card.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player receives a starting tree card and a balance cube (which is placed in the center space of the starting tree card). The room cards are shuffled into a draw deck. The six scoring cards are placed near the score track (each player’s score tokens start on the beginning space).

The game is played over three rounds. At the beginning of each round, each player is dealt six cards. Once this is done, players choose one of their cards to place face-down in front of them and the rest are passed clockwise to the next player. Players reveal their chosen face-down card and place it into their treehouse. If more cards are on one side of the tree than the other, then the balance marker is shifted in that direction. A player MUST connect like colors together and they can’t have two cards of the same color not touching on the tree.

Players continue drafting until they have one card left, which is discarded. At the end of the first round, each player will have five cards in their tree. At the end of each round, scoring occurs. Players potentially earn one point for each room in their tree, though players can manipulate the point values of the six scoring / color cards via special cards. After three rounds, whoever has the most points, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Best Treehouse Ever” has to be one of the more fun drafting cards I’ve played. It’s easy to teach and to play, but the light strategy elements that come with it keep me coming back for more. Essentially, you’re building a tree using the cards you’re dealt…which changes as hands are passed around the table. You’re trying to keep like colors together, which is sometimes easier said than done. If you manage to block off a color by building other room colors over top of it, then you’re outta luck as you can’t have two cards of the same color in different parts of your tree. Since there’s six colors and each of their point value can be manipulated, you’ll often find yourself debating on which colors to build and which colors to pass up.

This game is an easy recommend to just about anybody, as the theme is family-friendly and the gameplay engaging. It goes for about $15-20 on Amazon (as of 2/4/16), so my advice is to add this little gem to your collection.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/best-treehouse-ever/feed/035353PRESS RELEASE: “Escape Room In a Box: The Werewolf Experiment” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-escape-room-in-a-box-the-werewolf-experiment-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-escape-room-in-a-box-the-werewolf-experiment-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondWed, 03 Feb 2016 18:55:53 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35251Escape Rooms seem to be all the rage these days, but I’m not one to complain. Escape rooms make you feel like you’re actually part of a “SAW” movie, but without the risk of meeting a gruesome end. Typically, Escape Rooms are group exercises that challenge players to beat all the puzzles before the time limit expires. That’s exactly what you’re getting with “Escape Room In a Box: The Werewolf Experiment”, a game that’s seeking funding through the Kickstarter process in February, 2016.

Game Co-designer Juliana Patel offered the following:

“Escape Room in a box is a 60-90 minute cooperative game where 2-6 players solve puzzles, crack codes, and find hidden clues in order to escape from a mad scientist’s plot to turn them intowerewolves!

This is an experience as much as a game. It’s a chance to host an unforgettable night of fun withyour friends as you race against the clock to twist your brain around puzzling problems and cunning clues. It is all the fun of an Escape Room crammed into a tiny box of DOOM! (But only if you don’t escape, if you do escape, it’s a tiny box of BRILLIANCE!)

We can’t tell you too much without ruining the surprise, but these are not just pen and paper puzzles. There are locked boxes! Keys and codes that must be found! Feats ofdexterity, quests for knowledge and mind-bending brain teasers that must be accomplished.

The game is primarily a one time use game like the real Escape Rooms or Murder Mystery Night Games. However, we want some replay-ability, so every game will include a refill pack (FREE with the kickstarter – sold separately after) that will have a .pdf of the puzzles, replacements for the elements that are used up, and instructions for reconstructing the box. We will also include a “game master script” for the host so that you take charge of certain elements (timing, hints, etc.) asyou lead your friends through their adventure and watch them escape their terrible werewolf fate (or not!).

This is a unique gaming experience like nothing else on the market. If you are passionate about puzzles, or love escape rooms, or are just looking for a totally new and fun way to spend time bonding with friends, family or co-workers, definitely check out this Kickstarter!”

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You can learn more about and support “Escape Room In a Box: The Werewolf Experiment” by visiting its Kickstarter page, here:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-escape-room-in-a-box-the-werewolf-experiment-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/035251Aether Captains (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/aether-captains-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/aether-captains-preview/#respondWed, 03 Feb 2016 17:59:12 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35240Things aren’t looking all that peaceful above the skies of Arkady, what with air pirates threatening to take down the Grand Compact. In “Aether Captains”, a game primarily involving dice & coming to Kickstarter mid-January 2016, one player will assume the rule of the HMS Dauntless & Dominion tasked with defending the Grand Compact from all the other players (who assume the rule of the air pirates). The pirates will be sending waves of ships against the Grand Compact, each with their own personal objectives which may pit them against one another, depending on the circumstances. It’s important to stress that I was sent an unfinished prototype…the dice, for example, were not included and paper substitutes were provided. As such, I primarily used art provided by the developer/publisher so as to better represent the game. Also, prototypes are generally not reflective of the final product, making the rules you see below subject to change.

It’s important to give you folks a little background on the components so that you know what I’m referring to when I mention it. The game comes with some hex tiles, representing Arkady. They’re double-sided, allowing players to switch between the Grand Compact territories (yellow border) and the Domain of the Air Pirate territories (grey border). Any city tiles will belong to the Grand Compact, with the Neutral Ground tile placed in the middle of the table. So many tiles will be used to build Arkady, depending on how many people are playing the game. Here, the game has a bit of tile-laying as players will take turns building the board. It’s important that players pay attention to the tiles and try to place at least one of each, as some objective cards will list specific field and drop zones. Luckily, players can choose which objective cards to take based on what was laid out, if they can’t manage to place all types.

With regard to cities…they may be few, but are pretty unique. All of the cities belong to the Grand Compact and one is placed every four tiles during setup. Each city offers a different resource, though can be destroyed if their hit points (called defense points) are depleted. Fuel allows player to move, firearms allow players to perform attacks, gold will be needed by the pirates to recruit as well as complete objectives, repair gear us used by the Navy Commander (Grand Company) to repair sections of their ship, and water is used by the pirates to complete some of their objectives. Obviously, the Neutral Ground is controlled by no one…though both sides can find new crew at this location. Players will be given minis to move their ships around the board, as well as player boards for their respective sides. The Grand Compact will use either the HMS Dauntless or the HMS Dominion in a 2-3 player game while being able to use both in a 4-5 player game. These ships come in sections…six dice (numbered 1-6), with four faces representing the sections and two faces representing cross sections. Each pirate gets three dice ships and three miniatures, along with objective cards, crew cards, action cards, and some other goodies.

The HMS Dauntless and the HMS Dominion have similar anatomy, but the stats in their individual sections are different. Each section lists numbers of different colors…red being gun emplacements, blue being defense, yellow meaning command & repair, and green meaning engine. The player commanding these ships will role a twelve sided die comparing the result against these values for the purposes of roll checks. The pirates, on the other hand, command smaller ships containing red (attack), green (strength), blue (value), and sometimes grey (upgrade value) values. Some of the ships like the Zomby Strike and Steam Raven have a high value but also a pretty high attack values, while others are a bit more well-rounded. As these ships take damage, the die is turned clockwise to the next face that shows the next consecutive strength value. To win the game, the pirates must complete their selected objective while the Navy Commander must destroy so many pirate ships to reach a certain VP total.

To keep the preview moving, I’ll opt to give you an overview of gameplay as opposed to a detailed instruction. Essentially, each player will take turns to execute actions during a round to move ships, attack another player, buy resources, repair damage, and recruit crew. Each faction has different actions to choose from. For example, the Navy Commander operates on a points system and has six points to spend any way he/she wants during a round. Each warcaptain, on the other hand, can choose two action cards per round. They’ll also treat cities a bit differently in that pirates will need to occupy a city (if directed by an objectives card) in order to gain its resources, while the Navy Commander can simply buy them up to a max of six resources per ship (one for each section). Crew members can be recruited for one gold and each provide unique one-time use abilities.

The most complicated part of the game (that’s not to say that it’s hard to figure out) is combat. If you’re the Navy Commander, you’re gonna wanna blow stuff up to win the game. Doing so requires a little precision, as the gun emplacements have both a position and firing range. Port guns can only hit pirates on the port side, and etc…just like in a ship battle on the high seas. Dice are rolled and stats are compared to determine if the attack hits or not. The Navy Commander will have a few different weapons, like bomb launchers and long ranged cannons, that have varying rules. Further, sections can take damage requiring them to use some of their precious action points for repairs. Combat works similarly with regard to cities and the values can be modified via occupying force tokens and etc.

It was difficult for me to fully enjoy this title, but not for the reasons you’d suspect. The gameplay is fairly enjoyable and the ability to set up the board differently each game adds a lot of replayability. You see, “Aether Captains” is primarily a dice game and my dice…well, were folded paper cut outs. It did whet my appetite though and I can’t wait to see what the actual final production copies will look like. Playing both sides of the conflict is also pretty different…on one side you control a massive/powerful behemoth while on the other you have a bunch of smaller ships. In the case of the latter, you’ll have to coordinate with other players to take on the HMS Dauntless and the HMS Dominion but also be mindful of your personal objective. If rolling dice and being an air pirate is the life for you, then you owe it to yourself to check out “Aether Captains” and its Kickstarter campaign.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/aether-captains-preview/feed/035240Ticket to Ride: The Card Gamehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ticket-to-ride-the-card-game/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ticket-to-ride-the-card-game/#respondSun, 31 Jan 2016 19:23:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35301No matter how many games I add to my collection, there’s always room in my closet for “Ticket to Ride”. I play it on the PC, I play it on the Xbox 360, and when the family is in the mood, we bust out the board game. Needless to say I’m a big fan of the game…it’s just so simple to play. I just wish the expansions weren’t so pricy, but I’ll get to that in my upcoming review of the UK map expansion. Today we’ll be looking at a smaller version of “Ticket to Ride”, condensed into card form. Does it hold up to the original? Keep reading to find out!

Ticket to Ride: The Card Game – 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Components

The game includes 96 train cards, 6 big city bonus cards, 46 destination tickets, and a rulebook.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player receives one locomotive (wild) card, then the train deck is shuffled with each player getting seven cards. Five cards are drawn from the deck face-up to form a pool. Each player receives six destination tickets from the shuffled deck and must keep at least one. Unwanted tickets are shuffled back into the ticket deck. The big city cards are placed off to the side. The youngest player goes first, with play proceeding clockwise.

A player’s turn consists of two steps:

1. The player will take one card from each colored row in their rail yard and place them face-down into their “On-The-Track Stack”. These cards remain there until the train deck runs out and its time to score tickets. Players may not look at their own pile, though you are free to break that rule for younger/inexperienced players or for those with a terrible memory.

2. The player will perform one of three actions: A) draw two train cards (deck or face-up cards), B) Place a suit of two or more cards or three cards of different colors into their railway, into piles sorted by color, C) draw four destination tickets, keeping as many as they want (they can discard them all). With regards to the second action, the player cannot play colors already present in their rail yard until they have no more of that color present. In addition, a player cannot play a color shown in another person’s rail yard UNLESS they play more cards than their opponent has in front of them. The opponent, in that case, discards the cards of that color (called train robbing).

Turns continue until the train deck runs out. When this happens, everyone gets one final turn, including the player who drew the last card from the deck. Players then go through their “On-The-Track Stack” to complete as many destination tickets as possible (the tickets will tell the player how many of a particular color are needed). Players with uncompleted tickets subtract their value from their calculated total. In addition, the player with the most completed destination tickets to each of the Big Cities, (Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Miami) receives the Bonus card for that city and adds the points on that Bonus card to their score. The player with the most points, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played. For example, a four player game has two scoring rounds, meaning they’ll go through the train deck twice.

The Review

I have to admit, “Ticket to Ride: The Card Game” ended up playing a lot differently than I expected. You’re essentially trying to get cards into a score pile (the “On-The-Track-Stack”) so that you can use them to complete destination tickets during scoring. The hard part is getting the cards to your rail yard in the first place, which in turn allows you to put them into said score pile. The restrictions of not being able to play cards of a color you already have in your rail yard is limiting and so is the rule that you CAN place a color down your opponent has but only if lay down more than they have. In the end, it comes down to a battle for colors since only one color can be present in any rail yard at one time…and you may need said color to complete destination tickets.

While I prefer the board game over this, “Ticket to Ride: The Card Game” remains enjoyable enough to play on a regular basis when schedules are tight. It retains a lot of the mechanics of the core game, making it very easy to jump into assuming you already own “Ticket to Ride” or “Ticket to Ride: Europe”. I’ve seen this game sold on Amazon for about $15-$20, making it an easy recommend for any “Ticket to Ride” fan…just be forewarned that some may find it a step down from what they’re used to (especially those who prefer the more complicated “Ticket To Ride: Europe” edition).

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ticket-to-ride-the-card-game/feed/035301Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 5 – United Kingdom & Pennsylvaniahttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ticket-to-ride-map-collection-volume-5-united-kingdom-pennsylvania/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ticket-to-ride-map-collection-volume-5-united-kingdom-pennsylvania/#respondSat, 30 Jan 2016 20:07:46 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35317I normally stay away from the map packs despite my love for “Ticket to Ride”, mainly because I find them to be very expensive. I had to make an exception in this case, as this one features the very state in which I live…Pennsylvania. I was interested to see just what cities would be included and if I could indeed see my house from afar…unfortunately but not surprisingly, I couldn’t. As a quick disclaimer, I’m going to opt to keep this article brief as I’ve already gone over how to play “Ticket to Ride” in my previous review. Rather, I’m going to highlight what you’re getting and what I think.

First off, it’s important to stress that this is NOT a standalone game. You do need either “Ticket to Ride” or “Ticket to Ride: Europe” in order to play this, as the trains are not included.

This expansion contains:

Map of United Kingdom (2-4 players)

Map of Pennsylvania (2-5 players)

New Train cards & Tech Cards (United Kingdom)

New Stock Share Cards (Pennsylvania)

Tickets & Rules for each Map

The board is double-sided, for those of you who are curious. Both sides feature new rules that bear mentioning:

PA & UK

Ferries – Special routes linking two adjacent cities across a body of water. To claim a route, a player must play a locomotive card for each symbol along that route (along with the cards of the proper color).

PA

Stock Shares – When a player claims a route, they can also take the top stock card from any of the railroads listed along that route. The person with the most shares in each railroad receives points, though the person in second receives a few points too.

A 15 point Globetrotter bonus is awarded to the player(s) who completed the most Tickets by game’s end.

2 Player Variant – Whenever a player takes a stock share, they choose another for a third dummy player. At the end of the game, the dummy player’s cards are shuffled and half are revealed, which are then counted when calculating majorities.

UK

Players only use 35 trains instead of the usual 45.

At the start of the game, each player receives a Locomotive in addition to their 4 Train Cards.

-Any 4 cards can be played as a Locomotive

-When 3 or more Locomotives appear among the available face-up cards, do NOT discard them.

Technology cards – Players start the game without technology and can only claim 1 and 2 space routes in England. At the beginning of a player’s turn, before taking a regular action, they may discard locomotives to buy ONE technology card. The technology cards will tell you how many locomotives are required to buy it. There are optional, advanced technology cards players can include as well.

There is no longest route or globetrotter bonus.

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The Review

While I did find this map pack to be expensive, I did enjoy the new “toys” it brought to the table. I like the idea of technology on the UK map as it gave me a sense of progression, like I was playing an RPG and starting out with a level one character who needed some serious buffing. I often spent time trying to figure out which ones to buy and which routes needed which tech cards to be completed. On the other hand, the PA stock card idea can’t be ignored either. Like “Stockpile” and “Acquire”, you’re trying to obtain a majority shareholder bonus in order to earn something good at the end of the game, be it currency or points. Since I enjoy stock market themed games, I took to this mechanic featured on the PA map immediately.

Bottom line…if you enjoy “Ticket to Ride” as much as I do and have the spare change, I’d say grab this one. It would be nice if these expansions were only $15 or so and at times, I feel like this particular brand/line of games is price-gouging me. Still, it’s fun to play, so if you don’t mind the price tag then you’ll probably want to have it. For families of five, you’ll be able to play the PA map, though not the UK one (unless you don’t mind breaking the rules and the board getting crowded).

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ticket-to-ride-map-collection-volume-5-united-kingdom-pennsylvania/feed/035317The Bermuda Crisis (Preview)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/bermuda-crisis-preview/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/bermuda-crisis-preview/#respondThu, 28 Jan 2016 19:31:09 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35121I can’t tell you how many conspiracy theories I’ve heard regarding the Bermuda Triangle. While some of them are pretty far out there, it can admittedly be fun to think of the mysteries that surround it. “The Bermuda Crisis”, a game that’ll be hitting Kickstarter sometime in January of 2016, puts players in the shoes of competing teams exploring an undisclosed island inside the Bermuda Triangle. Your goal will be to collect treasures in the form of resources, magic, artifacts, and other goodies whilst trading, managing vendettas, and building base camps. Before we get started, I’d like to thank game creator Jerrod Warr for providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making everything you read about in this article (including the rules) subject to change.

My prototype copy came with resource cards (a type of currency), mystique cards (magic abilities), catalyst cards (secret objectives), Brinehorn’s Scroll (an alternate victory condition), skill maps (tracks acquired abilities), a discovery dawning track (an in-game timer), and some plastic chips (victory points and other miscellaneous tracking). The artwork in my copy was nicely themed and sharp to boot. The shades of colors used could definitely attract attention from across a room. Again, it’s worth stressing that the final production copies may look different from my prototype. For that reason, I pulled the pictures in this preview directly from the developer’s website and Facebook page in order to better represent the game.

To quickly overview game setup, each of the decks are shuffled separately and organized by their groups (resources = common and rare, mystiques = ambush, boost, and venture, and catalyst cards are by themselves). Each player gets a basic skills map, three common resources, and one rare resource. Any artifacts or Brinehorn’s Scroll pieces are placed back into the deck, with the player drawing more until they only have resources. The discovery dawning track’s sliding chip goes on the start circle and one chip per player goes on the stability stone space. A starting player is chosen at random with play proceeding clockwise.

Describing the rules of the game is going to be somewhat of a challenge as they’ll change throughout. To sum up the very basic of rules however, a player can do any of the following in any order on their turn:

2. Buy one mystique card from any of the three draw piles. Venture cards are immediately played face-up.

3. Activate any number of camp and venture abilities you’ve acquired that would create actions.

4. Play ambush or boost cards.

5. Use artifacts.

6. Initiate a trade.

Players then end their turn by drawing four resources (common or rare). Brinehorn’s Scroll pieces and artifacts are placed up in front of them, the latter of which advances the discovery dawning track. The game continues until someone acquires fourteen victory points, the discovery dawning track reaches the “finish” space, or when a player acquires all three pieces of Brinehorn’s Scroll. In the case of time running out, whoever has the most nature points in front of them wins.

To quickly sum up the above, players are aiming to collect resources and acquire abilities in order to help them earn themselves victory points. Building a basic camp on your skill map, for example, is worth one victory point. There are advanced and ultimate camp upgrades available that will net you more victory points AND new skills. By the by, there’s an “advanced” side to the skill map that players could opt to play with instead, allowing them to choose which advanced and ultimate upgrade abilities they’ll receive. For obvious reasons, new players should stick to the basic side of the skill map until they get a few games under their belt.

You can also use catalyst cards to gain victory points and I personally like the way they’re handled. For starters, there are actually two goals listed on each card. The number of chips you have will determine which one you’ll need to accomplish in order to gain another one. If you’re really far ahead and have a good number of victory point chips already, for example, then you’ll probably be observing objectives with the “8+” next to it. When accomplished, you’ll reveal the goal, gain a victory point chip, and draw a new catalyst card. These cards aren’t necessary to win, but they’ll help you reach that fourteen victory point goal.

Artifacts are pretty interesting too, giving players a wide range of abilities. They can act as a wild resource, for example, when buying or building. They can also allow you to draw one mystique card without having to spend resources. If you feel like you want to ruin someone else’s day, you can disable entire camps and their associated abilities, destroy face-up/face-down ambush or boost cards, or rotate any one of a player’s venture cards. While cool to see while they’re in front of you, they will advance time on the discovery dawning track. They are discarded after use except when disabling camps.

By now you’ve seen me refer to ambush, boost, and venture cards, all of which fall under the “mystique” card set. Each deck does something different. Ambush cards cost three common resources to purchase and specialize in attacking other players. The “Tainted Water” card, for example, forces all players to give you one of their resources. Boost cards cost three rare resources and are primarily used for defense and gaining resources. “Gift of the Tide”, for instance, grants any one resource to the user. Lastly, venture cards are permanents that can be either helpful or downright nasty, depending on what side they’re rotated to. It starts rotated to the positive (blue) side after being purchased ( requires three resources), but can be rotated again via an artifact throughout the game. Players earn nature points when playing these cards.

Needless to say there’s more to the game than I covered here, but hopefully this gives you a good idea as to what you’d be in for should you decide to support the game during its Kickstarter campaign. “The Bermuda Crisis” certainly gives players a lot of options, but it does a good job of easing them into it. In the beginning of the game, you’ll find yourself taking very few actions and instead focusing on the collection of resources. You won’t really have anything to worry about until you have several camps, artifacts, and other cards in play. In other words, the progression is pretty beginner-friendly. At the very least, this one’s worth checking out.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/bermuda-crisis-preview/feed/035121Burgle Bros.http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/burgle-bros/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/burgle-bros/#respondThu, 28 Jan 2016 12:03:01 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35275So you’ve already saved the world countless times from various diseases in the game “Pandemic” and you’ve saved as many civilians as you could from a burning building in “Flash Point: Fire Rescue“. All noble causes, don’t get me wrong…but what’s left to do? How about cooperatively pulling off daring and dangerous heists? In “Burgle Bros.”, players choose a scenario and attempt to get out of the building with their precious loot! Before we begin, I’d like to thank Timothy Fowers from Fowers Games for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.

Game setup will vary, depending on which scenario is chosen. The standard game (Bank Job) is for 2-4 players (though you can play solo), consists of three floors, and takes 90 minutes to get through. The intro game, on the other hand, consists of two floors and takes about 45 minutes to get through. I’ll sum this part up by simply saying that players each get a character and three stealth tokens. They will also set up the floors (face-down tiles), walls, and guards as appropriate for the scenario. Each floor consists of a grid of tiles, each containing one safe and one stairway. I’ll let the rulebook do most of the talking with regard to setup. The object of the game is to find the safes and escape with the loot through the roof without being caught by the guards.

On a player’s turn, they’ll take up to four actions, in any combination they choose:

a. Reveal an adjacent tile (Peek).

b. Move to an adjacent tile. If that tile is face down, reveal it. Some tiles have icons that depict things like laser beams, alarms, and do-not-enter which will have varying consequences.

When on a Computer Room tile:

c. Add a Hack token to this tile.

When on a Safe tile:

d. Add a die to this Safe tile (costs 2 actions).

e. Attempt to crack the safe by rolling the dice on this tile. In order to crack the safe, players must discover the combination by revealing all 6 tiles in the same row and column as the safe. The combination will be the numbers written on the bottom right corner of each tile. After each roll, put a Cracked token on all tiles that match any of the numbers you rolled. Cracking a safe awards the player a loot and tool card, though triggers a silent alarm and adds a movement value to the guard on the current floor and the ones below.

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If the player used less than three actions, they get to draw an event card. After the player’s turn is over, the guard on the current floor moves. A fixed guard die will indicate how many tiles they move…the more alarms that go off, the higher the number becomes. The guard will move in accordance to their patrol card, giving players an idea of where the guard will be going next. Once the guard reaches their destination (using the shortest route possible), a new patrol card is drawn. Guards will be drawn to alarms in the order they are set off. Once they are all turned off, the guard draws a new patrol card. Players lose a stealth token when they run into a guard. If a player has no stealth tokens, they are captured and everyone collectively loses the game.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

As you probably suspected, this game can be quite strategic. Most of your time will be spent talking with others, trying to figure out how best to manipulate the guard so that you can get to where you want to go. While walls have a fixed place every scenario, the tiles are randomly placed, so you never know what tile you’re moving to unless you peek first. There’s some strategy in this too…peeking makes your time on that floor take longer, but will help you avoid triggering any nasty alarms. As a group, players will need to coordinate and sometimes even set off alarms on purpose if one of their crew is unable to avoid a guard. It’s harder than you think, since the guard moves after every player’s turn. In a four player game, a guard will move multiple times before your turn rolls around again.

Besides trying to manipulate the guard, the game comes with some special tiles and optional rules that make things pretty tense. The atrium tile, for example, lets you peek up or down (on the floor above or below), though guards can see you and you’ll lose a stealth token if they’re present. Players can add tokens to computer tiles using action points to accumulate some security…meaning they can spend these tokens later to disable fingerprint, laser, or motion tiles appropriately as they come across them. Keypads force players to roll a six or they’ll be unable to proceed, and some tiles let players draw cards from varying decks. There’s more tile types that I haven’t mentioned, but there’s a lot here to keep things interesting. In addition, players can opt to use the “Lost Visual” expansion which causes the guard to disappear and then reappear via a new patrol card on the next turn.

All in all, “Burgle Bros.” turned out to be a pretty fun cooperative experience. I highly recommend that players try out the “Intro Game” scenario first so that they can get a handle on the flow of play. Trying the default scenario (“Bank Job”) will most certainly take you over the average 90 minute play time if you don’t know what you’re doing or haven’t played before. There’s a lot of replayability too, what with the floor tiles being randomized each time you play (like in “Forbidden Desert“). The box, while different, is admittedly awkward (resembling an office building) and doesn’t stack well with the other games in my collection. If you’re looking for a new cooperative game to play, I recommend giving this one a spin. I think the $36.99 price tag (as of 1/28/16) is relatively fair for what you’re getting here.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/burgle-bros/feed/035275Roll for the Galaxyhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/roll-for-the-galaxy/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/roll-for-the-galaxy/#respondThu, 21 Jan 2016 14:19:22 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=33324I used to play a LOT of space 4x games back in the day when I had a bit more time on my hands. I still enjoy the occasional game of “Galactic Civilizations” or “Sins of a Solar Empire”, but these video games can still take hours to play despite the fact that everything is computerized/automated. “Roll for the Galaxy” appealed to me because of its advertised forty-five minute playtime, despite the fact that you’re still settling worlds, researching technology, and recruiting workers. Before I talk about how I felt about this game after it was all said and done, let’s take a brief moment to look at how the game is played.

Roll for the Galaxy: 2-5 Players, Ages 13+, Average Play Time = 45 Minutes

There’s an entire page in the manual devoted to game setup, so I’ll offer to give you the highlights. The phase tiles are placed “X” side up, in a specific order (see the phase strip). Each player gets a dice cup, credit marker, a mat (put the credit marker on the “1” space), a screen, a phase strip, one random faction tile, and one random home world tile. They also get two double-sided game tiles, one of which is placed on the development space of their construction zone while the other is placed on the world side (they’ll choose which tile goes where). Finally, each player receives three home (white) dice to put in their cup, two home (white) dice to put in their citizenry (located on their mat), and bonus dice as indicated by the built worlds in their tableau (faction & home world).

The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round has five steps:

2. Assign – Players assign these workers to their matching symbol on the phase strip by placing them below it. One die is chosen to go ANYWHERE on the strip, regardless of its icon, in order to activate that phase later on. The others may be reassigned through special powers, like “dictate”, but STAY BELOW the strip. It’s important that players do NOT change the faces on the dice to their new symbol as it’s easier to “undo” moves if players change their minds.

3. Reveal – Each player lifts their screens to reveal their assigned workers. The activated phase tiles are flipped appropriately from “X” to their active side. Each player can only activate one phase, so not all phases will be observed during any given round. In a two-player game, a spare white die is rolled to see what other phase may be activated this round.

4. Do Phases – Simultaneously, players do all selected phases in numeric order (left to right on the strip). Players will use all the workers assigned to it, whether they are on top of the strip or below the strip (the die on top of the strip simply determines which phase that player wishes to activate). Each of the five phases does something different, from earning money and/or VP chips, drawing new tiles, adding a development or world to their respective construction zones, completing a development or world and adding it to their tableau, producing & trading goods, and etc. A player’s unused dice (including those used to dictate) are placed back in their cup. Used dice are placed in their citizenry.

5. Manage Empire – Finally, each player can spend one credit to recruit, or move a single die from their citizenry to their cup. They can also recall developers, settlers, and goods and place them into their cup. The phase tiles are reset to their “X” side. If the VP chip pool is exhausted OR if any player has more than twelve tiles on their tableau (counting the double-sized faction tile as two tiles), the game is over.

At the game’s end, players count up their score by factoring in VP chips, the costs of all developments/worlds, bonus VPs, and etc. The player with the most VPs, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Roll for the Galaxy” intimidated me a bit…at least, at first. Could you blame me, what with all those icons and differently colored dice? There’s also the fact that I looked into buying “Race for the Galaxy” (its more complicated sister game) at one point and the rules made my head spin. Luckily, “Roll for the Galaxy” was a bit less intensive and I was able to grasp the mechanics a bit faster. I think this is what ultimately compelled me to buy “Roll for the Galaxy” instead of “Race for the Galaxy”.

Player interaction is present, but mostly passive. While the majority of your time will be spent trying to figure out where to assign workers, you will be playing a guessing game with your opponent(s)…that is, you’ll be trying to figure out which phase they intend to activate. You can assign workers to a phase underneath the strip, but unless that phase gets activated (by you or someone else), they’ll simply go back into the cup. Luckily, these dice can be used for the following round so it’s not like they are a wasted asset…though it may put you behind in terms of development/building tiles.

Do I recommend “Roll for the Galaxy”? In short, yes. Casual gamers who are used to simpler card/board games may find themselves overwhelmed at first. Like I said, there are a lot of dice, colors, and other things to factor into play (like gaining bonus VPs for matching dice/tile colors during the shipping/trading goods process). With that said, I think it can be enjoyed by just about anyone who’s willing to stumble a bit as they learn the mechanics. I personally enjoyed this one and I’m not too crazy about dice rolling, though the ability to reassign dice gives players a lot of opportunity to offset a bad roll. The game itself is a bit pricey ($40-$50), but worth picking up if you can afford to do so (especially if you like space-civ themed games).

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/roll-for-the-galaxy/feed/033324Artifacts, Inc.http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/artifacts-inc/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/artifacts-inc/#respondSun, 03 Jan 2016 01:48:45 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34761I can’t help but hum “dun-da-dun-tah” every time I glance at this game. Who can blame me? I mean, who wouldn’t want to pretend that they’re Indiana Jones and go on adventures in the search for ancient artifacts? In “Artifacts, Inc.”, you’ll be able to just that! More specifically (taken from the rulebook), “players can choose to focus on making lots of money by selling artifacts, having museum majorities, creating the best combination of expeditions and buildings, or searching below the waves for lost cities and hidden treasures.” Before we ready our whips and don our fedoras, I’d like to thank Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

There’s an entire page devoted to game setup, so I’ll opt to summarize this by saying that there are many different card types (also called assets) and they are each seeded by deck near or on the reputation board. Players then roll to determine who goes first. Each player gets cubes of one color, a specific amount of money (depending on who’s first, second, etc.), and one of each card from the “S” deck. They’ll also place one cube near the reputation board so that reputation can be tracked throughout the game. Turns proceed in clockwise order, starting with the first player.

On a player’s turn, they’ll roll a number of dice equal to the adventurer dice symbols listed on the cards they own. After rolling, they’ll place the dice on various cards to perform actions. The active player may place the dice on asset cards he owns, on public cards, or on the reputation board where it says “Dive”. Each action can hold one die and the die must meet the requirements of the action to be placed there. When a die is placed, the action is performed immediately. If multiple dice are listed on the card, then each die symbol can perform the action once. Play continues to the next person clockwise once a player has placed all of their dice and taken their actions.

Through actions, players will begin gaining reputation which the primary method of winning the game. In addition to gaining reputation, players can gain and sell artifacts, purchase a new asset card or upgrade an existing one they own to level two (by flipping it), collect money, and dive for underwater cards. When a player reaches 20 reputation, players continue taking turns until everyone has had an equal number of turns throughout the game. Museum majority points are awarded and then whoever has the most reputation at the end of it all, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Finally, a game that lets me feel like Indiana Jones without having to dive into a pit full of snakes! The card art is incredibly well done and everything fits the theme nicely. It’s hard not to bust out the Indiana Jones quotes while I’m playing, though I fear most of them would fly over my family’s heads anyway. No matter how much I keep insisting that “it belongs in a museum”, I’d be sure to get odd looks and possibly be in a straight jacket before the night was over. Although, I could probably make amends by making chilled monkey brains and eyeball soup…they’d love that.

It’s amazing how many choices one can make in this game considering there are only seventy-two cards in the box. Will you buy a new asset or flip an existing one to level two? If you choose the former, where do you plan on putting it? You see, players have a top and bottom row and some cards affect others that are adjacent to them. Will you opt to focus on dominating the museums by selling artifacts on a regular basis, or sell to a private collector (which is easier to roll for) and potentially earn more money to buy/upgrade more asset cards? Of course, underwater diving has its perks too as some asset cards give bonuses when certain treasure types are found (on top of the standard one reputation point per underwater card collected).

“Artifacts, Inc.” is a fine example of a dice worker placement game done right. The theme is excellent and the gameplay engaging. I’d say the learning curve is moderate, what with all the different card types and sections of the play area. Setting up the game for the very first time may even seem daunting to casual gamers. Luckily, there’s a nice illustration in the manual that gives an example card layout once the public cards, asset cards, and reputation board are all set up. Like “Eight-Minute Empire” (another game by Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games), “Artifacts, Inc.” quickly impressed me with both its content and low price tag ($15-20 on Amazon as of 12/10/15). If you enjoy worker placement games that feature a good mix of dice rolling and strategy, then give this one a go. Snakes and melting faces not included.

Final Verdict: 9/10

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/artifacts-inc/feed/034761Paperbackhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/paperback/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/paperback/#respondMon, 21 Dec 2015 00:59:34 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35221I recently praised “Letter Tycoon” for being a word game that utilizes a unique gameplay mechanic: the ability to buy patents on letters. “Paperback”, I found, has a similar unique theme…only here, you’ll be building a deck of letters while spelling out words. Like most deck builders, you’ll start with a very basic deck of cards and will be tasked with choosing what cards you’d like to add to your ever-growing deck. Before we go any further, I’d like to thank Timothy Fowers from Fowers Games for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.

Each player gets some starting cards for their deck (five 2 cent fame cards, and one T, R, S, L, and N). The four piles for the different ranks of fame cards are set up according to the chart in the manual. The common cards are shuffled, dealing four and splaying them near “the offer”, or grid of cards sorted by price (2 cents, 3 cents, etc.). The 8-10 cent cards are combined into one pile. Each pile is shuffled and placed face up in the above mentioned “offer”. The top card is taken of each pile (except for the 2 cent pile) and placed below it allowing players to purchase either card from each column. Attack cards are only used for the advanced game. To start, everyone draws a hand of five cards from their deck, the first player being the one to most recently have finished reading a novel.

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Create a word. They’ll be able to use the cards in their hand by laying them out in front of them. They can also refer to the topmost common card, leaving it on the length track. No proper nouns, names, or places are allowed.

2. Check the word length. If the word (number of letters) is equal to or longer than the highest number shown on the length track, then they can take the common card (revealing the next common card for everyone to use and possibly gain. When the last common card is gained, the game is over.

3. Resolve any abilities. If any of the cards used to form the word have special abilities, they’ll activate.

4. Score the word. The player adds their score (each letter has a score on the top left of the card), including the common card (if used/referred to).

5. Buy cards. Using the score totaled from step four, they’ll be able to purchase any number of cards so as long as the have the points to do so. Purchasing an alternate card (the single card below the pile’s column) requires that you replace it from the pile above. The cost of each card is listed in the lower left of the card. Unspent money/points is lost at the end of the turn.

6. Discard cards. All cards in their hand, including any purchased, go into their discard pile.

7. Draw next hand. The player draws five cards, plus any additional cards granted by abilities in the previous turn. If their deck runs out of cards, then they’ll shuffle their discard pile and keep drawing.

The game ends when any of the two fame piles are empty or when there are no more common cards. Each player adds up the fame points on the cards they have in their hands, decks, and discard piles and the person with the most fame, wins the game.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Paperback” combines the ideas of spelling words for points and deck building rather nicely. The instructions had me scratching my head a bit, especially with regard to game setup. After all, you have a huge grid of cards (called “the offer”), common cards, and fame cards…all of which are arranged in a particular way. Unless you know how these cards operate, it can be confusing to understand why they are being set up the way they are. After a game or two however, you’ll quickly get a feel for what’s going on. The deck building aspect works very well and stays true to the genre. For example, you’ll be able to trash cards in your hand (using abilities) that let you buy more expensive cards than you’d otherwise not be able to afford.

In addition, the game includes a number of different optional cards that can spice up play. Attack cards, for example, encourage direct conflict while player powers, on the other hand, give each player a unique ability to use. An award card can be included and awarded at the end of the game, based on whether or not the listed condition was met. There’s a spacebar card that, as a common card, lets you create two words from your hand instead of one and gain a point to boot. Theme cards force players to make words that fit the listed theme and again, these are all optional ways to play. Cubes come included and while optional, can be used for a number of different things. They can be used as rewards for helping other players or to say, discard your hand. All of these things add a lot of variety to the game allowing it to appeal to casual and hardcore spellers alike.

“Paperback” is going for $24.99 via the official site (link below). Normally I consider $10-$20 to be average for a card game, but there’s a lot of quality content here to warrant the extra dough. Give this one a look!

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/paperback/feed/035221Dragon Punchhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dragon-punch/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dragon-punch/#respondThu, 17 Dec 2015 17:46:04 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35183I played a LOT of “Street Fighter 2” back when arcades were still very much happening. I’m not going to claim that I was the best, but I had a pretty mean jump kick/sweep combo when playing as Ryu. “Dragon Punch”, a tiny fighting game that’s coming early 2016, reminds me a lot of the aforementioned game. Here, two players will be duking it out with different character and move cards to determine the victor. Before I get started, I’d like to thank the folks at Level 99 Games for sending me a pre-release copy.

Components

The game includes 12 basic cards, 5 character cards, and a rule book.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player will choose a character and receive the same set of six basic cards. Whichever player recently lost a game (any game) gets to go first. All basic cards start white-move up, while character cards can start in any orientation as they’ll be changing throughout the game.

The game plays over a series of turns and each turn has four steps:

1. Both players choose a card, move it to the front of their hand, and reveal it simultaneously.

2. The cards are compared to see which attacks are successful. There are attack, block, and evade icons on these cards that determine successful attacks. If both players successfully attack (because neither player blocked or evaded), only the quickest player is successful. This is determined by initiative & execution time. In the event of a tie, both attacks succeed.

3. Player take damage if there were successful attacks. A player’s health is equal to the number of white-side-up cards. Any player taking damage will flip a number of white-side-up cards to red-side-up, equal to the damage dealt. When a player’s cards are all red-side-up, they are defeated. Used cards this turns are flipped to the back of their hand so that their opponent can see it and can only be used again when unflipped via a taunt card.

4. Update initiative. Certain cards grant initiative on a successful attack or block, lasting one turn (the next card played). Initiative only comes into play when breaking ties during the second step.

The first player to win two rounds, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Dragon Punch” introduces some interesting gameplay mechanics that I certainly wouldn’t have minded seeing while playing “Street Fighter 2” in the arcade. There’s always that one guy that spams the same move over and over again and unless you’re well-versed in counters, you’ll often leave the game frustrated. I like how “Dragon Punch” makes a move unavailable after you use it and further, you can only get it back by playing a vulnerable taunt move. I also like how moves change as they are flipped from their white to red side, allowing a player to become more fierce or dangerous as they take damage.

One thing I didn’t like is that both decks have the same colored backs. For ease of dividing the basic cards between both players, it would have been nice if the backs were two different colors. There’s also only six basic cards per player, making a player’s options rather limiting. The upside to this is that you can usually knock out a game within minutes, meaning you can’t take it just about anywhere. This game puts an emphasis on mind games and timing…that is, trying to predict what your opponent will play next. While I do like the fact that each character has a different ability, I would like to see more content added to the game at some point to give it more variety.

The game itself all fits in a sort of tri-fold wallet, making it easy to tote around. There’s also a few variants listed in the rule book should you want to try something different. All in all, not a bad game…though it could have used more content to provide players with more moves/options. According to the email I received from Level 99 Games, “Dragon Punch” should be available to the public sometime in January, 2016.

Final Verdict: 6/10

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dragon-punch/feed/035183Cat Capershttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cat-capers/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cat-capers/#respondWed, 16 Dec 2015 16:44:00 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35165I recently had the pleasure of reviewing “Granny Wars” by Cheeky Parrot Games, a game that revolved around players trying to throw points onto their hidden identities in the center of the table without cluing others in as to which color they represented. “Cat Capers” is slightly similar in play style only here, players know which color you are. Rather, players (who assume the role of cats) will be trying to earn points by winning activity cards through a fairly simple bidding mechanic. Once again, I’d like to thank Julia Schiller, Director of Cheeky Parrot Games, for sending me a press copy for review purposes.

Cat Capers: 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Components

The game includes 4 house tiles, 4 player screens and paw placement trackers, 16 cat paw tokens, 28 activity cards, 36 cat cards, 4 rule player aid, 1 first player marker, and a rule book. There’s also a dog dilemmas reference card that comes with an optional/alternate rule set, complete with dog paw tokens.

Setup & Gameplay

The activity cards are shuffled and dealt face-down evenly among the four house tiles in piles of six (two players use three houses). Leftover cards are placed nearby. The cat cards are shuffled and each player receives four cards to form their starting hand. Each player also gets a screen, tracker, and paw tokens of one color.

The game is played over six rounds, with each round consisting of five phases:

1. Reveal the top activity card on each house.

2. Each player secretly places paws on their own tracker, located behind their screen, indicating which card(s) they want to win.

3. Players reveal their choices and move the paw tokens on the tracker to the corresponding houses.

4. Players resolve challenges. Whoever has the most paws of their color on a house will win the card. Some cards can be played to alter the game or give players advantages, though the color of the card played must match the activity color currently involved in the challenge. You can still play any card face-down regardless of color to add one more paw to the challenge. Ties result in the card being discarded. Capturing cards of your color (matching your screen/paw color) grant you more points (one point for each card).

5. Each player draws one cat card plus one for each paw in their basket (on their tracker). The first player token is passed clockwise and the next round begins.

Once the game is over, players count up their points (remembering to give themselves plus one for each card of their color) and the person with the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I liked “Cat Capers” for the same reasons I liked “Granny Wars”…it’s accessible to just about everyone and allows players to play mind games with their opponents, a mechanic I find to be almost irresistible. For example, as the red player, the obvious choice might be to bid on red cards as often as possible so that you can score some extra points via color matching. This can make you somewhat predictable though, so opting to mess with your opponents by bidding on something completely unexpected is also a viable strategy. There’s also some resource management in your cat cards…for example, you could opt to bid a bunch of tokens onto your basket instead of a house so that you can draw a bunch of cat cards at the end of the round. This is especially useful if there a bunch of low valued activity cards you simply don’t care to win, but the extra cards could help you out in a future round.

All in all, “Cat Capers” is family friendly and worth your attention. I just wish it supported five players instead of four. The game goes for about $18.99 (as of 12/15/15), making it a fair deal for what you’re getting here.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cat-capers/feed/035165Granny Warshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/granny-wars/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/granny-wars/#respondTue, 15 Dec 2015 19:09:25 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35158Why are the grannies at war? No one really knows. I suspect it has something to do with Martha winning on “Bingo Night” four weeks in row. When it doubt, blame “Bingo”. Someone should make a documentary about that or something. Yes, indeed…”Bingo, The Starter of Wars”. Kickstarter, here I come! ANYWHO, we’re here today to look at “Granny Wars”, a card game that’s all about secret identities and before you ask…no, there’s no “Bingo”. Before we get started, I’d like to thank Julia Schiller, Director of Cheeky Parrot Games, for sending me a press copy for review purposes.

Firstly, players will randomly choose a number of score pile & matching granny loyalty cards equal to the number of players plus one (plus two in a two player game). It doesn’t matter which colors are used, so as long as the colors of the two card types match. The score pile cards are played face-up in the center of the table, while one loyalty card is dealt face-down to each player. The extra is removed from the game, unseen. The regular and gold victory point cards are shuffled and each player receives ten cards (fifteen in a two player game, eight in a seven/eight player game). The oldest goes first.

On a player’s turn, they’ll play one card from their hand onto any of the score piles. If the value of the card played is equal to and opposite of the existing card (laying a -2 on top of a 2), then the existing card is moved to a different score pile of that player’s choice. Only one bounce can occur per turn and a bounced card cannot trigger a second bounce. Gold card have varying abilities, which are listed right on the card.

Play continues until everyone is out of cards. Players then reveal their hidden identity (via their loyalty cards) and sum the victory points on their pile in the middle of the table. Whoever has the most points, wins the game! In the event of a tie, the player with the fewest cards on their pile wins.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Granny Wars” is a prime example of a game that is easily accessible to anyone. It’s easy to learn, easy to teach, and won’t offend anyone…okay, perhaps that list bit was a stretch. I’ve known some grandmothers in my time that have no sense of humor…like, if it were possible, they’d have a negative sense of humor. The rule book is short and to the point, only being about four pages long. The game even includes some extra blank gold cards should you feel creative or come across an idea for a card that you feel should be added to the game.

My favorite part of “Granny Wars” was the bluffing and trying to figure out which color loyalty card(s) belonged to my opponent(s). It’s easy to throw nothing but positive cards onto your pile, but eventually everyone else will catch on and realize which loyalty card/color you have. The challenge is trying to keep your opponents guessing without adding positive cards to their score piles. “Granny Wars” is priced on their official website (link below) at $12.65, a fair price for what you’re getting here. Most card games I see fall within the $10-$15 price range, making this one an easy recommend to gamers everywhere.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/granny-wars/feed/035158RESISTOR_http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/resistor_/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/resistor_/#respondMon, 14 Dec 2015 20:05:42 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35195I can’t help but ask (in a badly imitated computerized voice), “shall we play a game?” every time I set “RESISTOR_” up to be played. That’s a “WarGames” reference, kids…go watch your Matthew Broderick movies. Anywho, “RESISTOR_” pits two players against one another, each of whom have entrusted their global thermonuclear warheads to their respective supercomputers. Here, players will be racing to hack one another with the intent on getting their opponent’s DEFCON level from 1 to 5. Before you ask if you’d rather just play a nice game of “Chess”, I’d like to thank the folks from Level 99 Games for sending me a copy for review purposes.

RESISTOR_: 2 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes

Components

The game includes 50 double-sided circuit cards, 4 double-sided mainframe cards (2 red, 2 blue), and 3 action cards (red on one side, blue on the other). There is an optional fourth action card called “lockdown” that players can include if they so wish.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player receives two mainframe cards of their chosen color, starting with DEFCON 1 on top. The deck is shuffled (minus the action cards) and seven cards are drawn in a line between the mainframe cards, aligning the black chips on the card sides. Any cards with resistors are shuffled back into the deck and replaced. The deck is put into the vertically standing box, arrow pointing down. Each player draws two cards from the deck and are only allowed to look at one side (their opponent can see the other). The player with the fewest cards in the line showing their color goes first, flipping the action cards to their color.

A player will perform each of the three actions on their turn:

1. Flip Over: Flip a card on the board over the short edge in the direction of the arrow, aligning the black chips appropriately.

2. Draw & Trash: Draw a card from the deck and add it to either player’s hand, discarding one from the same player so that they have two cards. If a resistor is discarded, the opponent must play a flip over action.

3. Switch Out: Remove a card from the board and add it to either player’s hand, replacing it with a card from that same player. The side both players saw on the table will face the active player Likewise, the card being placed onto the table will be placed face-up on the side the active player saw.

When a resistor appears on the line, it must be resolved immediately:

1. If either player has a connecting line of their color to the resistor, they repair a DEFCON level.

2. Any color line connecting to the resistor is flipped, regardless if it connects to the mainframe.

3. Remove the resistor from the board.

4. Slide the cards to form a line again. As the game progresses and resistors revealed, the line will shorten.

If a player connects a line of their color to the opposing mainframe, the opposing mainframe takes damage increasing their DEFCON level. If a player is damaged while at DEFCON 4, they lose.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“RESISTOR_” is very unique in terms of theme and very colorful to boot. It focuses heavily on memorization, which may dissuade those who hate memorization games. After all, your primary goal is to arrange the cards in the line in such a way that your colored line connects with the enemy mainframe. If you’re not paying attention as cards are flipped and switched out, then you could end up hurting yourself as you take actions. Despite the fact that I personally suck at memorization games, I think the game is unique and sound enough to recommend anyway. The hardest part, I found, was getting used to the double-sided circuit cards and maneuvering them so that the appropriate side could only be seen by the appropriate player. The variants listed in the manual are a nice touch, as is the optional extra “lockdown” action card.

Long story short, the gameplay mechanics in “RESISTOR_” are unique enough to where it should be checked out regardless of what kinds of games you prefer to play. You can find it for $20 via the link below (as of 12/14/15), making it a fair buy for what you’re getting here.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/resistor_/feed/035195Thieves!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/thieves/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/thieves/#respondSun, 13 Dec 2015 22:33:40 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35099We all know that robbing a bank is generally career suicide, especially if you instruct the bank teller to deposit the money into your personal account while waving a gun around. Don’t laugh…this ACTUALLY happened. “Thieves” puts players in the shoes of well, thieves, with your personal goal being to have as much money as possible when the game ends. Before we get into specifics, I’d like to thank Cassidy Werner from Calliope Games for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes. Calliope Games are the same people who brought you “Tsuro“, “Tsuro of the Seas“, “Roll For It!“, “Got ‘Em!“, “Double Double Dominos“, and “Ugh!“, for those of you who recognize the name.

Thieves!: 3-6 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes

Components

The game includes 58 Playing Cards, 7 Gem Tokens, and 6 Reference Cards. The gem tokens are only used to track game wins, assuming players opt to play more than one game.

Setup & Gameplay

The deck of cards is shuffled and each player receives three cards to form their starting hand. Any getaway cards are shuffled back into the deck with replacements being dealt. The rest of the cards form a draw deck. The player wearing the most black goes first.

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Draw up to four cards. If a getaway card is drawn, it is played immediately. The player will draw replacement cards if this happens so that their hand contains four cards.

2. Play a card.

Loot cards (valued 0-3) can be added in front of the active player, face-down, adding to their stash. Alternatively, they can be played face-up in front of another player, adding it to their stash. Ring cards are worth three points during a raid and one point at the end of the game, while horseshoe cards are worth one point during a raid and three at the end of the game.

Police cards (valued 1-2) are played face-up near the deck. Once the combined value reached four or more, a raid occurs. Players reveal their stashes and the player with the highest valued stash has their cards (including any police and thief cards played before the raid) shuffled back into the deck. Play then continues as normal. Siren cards instruct other players to immediately play police cards, if they have them.

Thief cards have a number of different effects, like the ability to move a loot card from one stash to another or remove police cards from the table.

Getaway cards are ALWAYS played immediately, with a replacement being drawn for the player that drew it. The game ends when the seventh getaway card is drawn. Whoever has the most loot in their stash at this point, wins the game. If players opt to play more than one game, then the winner earns one game token (first to two wins).

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Thieves!” is an interesting push-your-luck, screw-your-opponent game that will constantly question the obvious strategy to earn as much as possible. In other words, it’s a game that encourages you to be greedy, but not as greedy as your opponents (at least in the beginning/middle of the game). Since the player with the most valuable loot pile loses everything during a raid, you’ll sometimes find yourself stacking your opponent’s stash to ensure that they’re the next target. Rings are a great way to do this, as they’re worth three points during a raid and only one point at the end of the game.

Despite this game being listed with a three player minimum, I don’t see why you couldn’t play with only two. The game works better the more players you add, but you can get away with two players in a pinch. In the end, it comes down to timing…that is, stacking your stack as high as you can just before the game ends, but not before you get hit with a raid. “Thieves!” plays quickly and supports up to six players, making it both a great filler and family game. It can be a bit “in-your-face”, so parents with competitive children may want to keep an eye on things to prevent escalations. The $10 price tag via the official website (link below), is fair for what you’re getting here.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/thieves/feed/03509912 Days (Second Edition)http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/12-days-second-edition/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/12-days-second-edition/#respondSat, 12 Dec 2015 00:12:57 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35101I previewed “12 Days” a little over three years ago, compliments of Gamesmith, LLC (who published the First Edition). It was one of the first games I had ever previewed, though I never did see an official final production copy to know what customers and Kickstarter backers were getting. The wait, it seems, is finally over. Calliope Games, the same folks who made “Tsuro“ (amongst other games), just sent me a copy of their recently published Second Edition. Along those lines, I’d like to extend a special thank you to Cassidy Werner from Calliope Games for sending me this early “Christmas present”.

Now here’s the thing…I’ve already written about and (p)reviewed this game (even if it was three years ago). To that end, I’m simply going to include a link to said preview along with a video overview of the Second Edition so that you can see how the game is played and what it looks like now, respectively. The rules haven’t changed, so those lucky folks who do own the print-and-play version may want to consider an upgrade for aesthetic reasons. It’s still a beautiful and easy-to-play game, making it an easy recommend from where I’m sitting. At the very least, it’ll make for a good stocking-stuffer for the upcoming Christmas holiday.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/12-days-second-edition/feed/035101Tumult Royalehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tumult-royale/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tumult-royale/#respondSat, 05 Dec 2015 03:35:24 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35107Put simply, the word tumult means “loud confusion or disorder by a large number of people”. As royals, players will be taking commodities from the common people in order to build statues, but not so many as to make them unhappy. The goal of each player is to erect as many statues as possible, so you’ll not only be managing resources but pushing your luck while you do it. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank the folks from Thames & Kosmos for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Game setup is rather involved and takes up a page and a half in the rulebook so I’ll opt to streamline this part. Players will get a castle board and statues of their color, a mercy card, a nobility card, and supporters. Extra supporters are put off to the side. Commodities are placed face-down in the center of the table so that they don’t overlap. The frame/board is assembled with region tiles, some face-up and some face-down. The highest ranking player (per the nobility card) gets the spinner & hourglass. Starting with the lowest ranked player, each player puts a statue onto one of the unoccupied pasture fields. Some nobility cards and commodity tiles will not be used in a 2-3 player game…the rulebook has the specifics.

The game is played over several rounds. Each round has seven phases. Again, I’m going to opt to streamline this a little to keep the review moving.

1. Gauge the People’s Sentiment – The king spins the arrow on the tumult spinner. The number shown indicates the number of commodities the people want to still have after players collect taxes.

2. Collect Taxes – Players set aside three face-down commodities each from the central pool, not to be used this round. Then, once the timer is flipped (twenty seconds), they’ll all (at the same time) secretly look at commodities and take the ones they want (using only one hand). Taken tiles go face-down on that player’s castle board.

3. Resolve Potential Tumults – Players check each commodity tile that hasn’t been stolen by flipping them face-up. If, for a certain commodity type, the number of commodities depicted on the remaining tiles is equal to or greater than the number on the spinner, then no tumult ensues for that commodity type. If there is a tumult, each player sums the number of that commodity they just took. The greediest player loses three supporters and must give back all of the tiles they took this round of that type, except for one of the lowest-value commodity tile of that type.

4. Place Statues – Starting with the king, players can pay resources to place statues onto an unoccupied field. The costs vary depending on the terrain type. Players can earn back supporters by not placing statues or by overpaying.

5. Redistribute Ranks – The player with the most supporters becomes King, with the player with the second most receiving the next in line, and so on.

6. Crown the New King – The player who is King gets to place a statue on the next empty space on the score track, though loses five supporters to the bank.

7. Receive the People’s Mercy – The player with the fewest statues gets to flip their mercy token to the positive side.

Rounds continue until a number of statues line up along the score track, to the point where you’ll see numbers beneath the spaces. The player with the most statues will sum them, while the player with the fewest statues sums theirs. Then, the latter is subtracted from the former. If the result is greater than the number below the score space on the track, the game ends. The player with the most statues, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

There’s a lot of things to like about “Tumult Royale”. For one, the game balances well in that players will rarely be able to monopolize themselves as being the King every round…not unless their opponents screw up and lose supporters by being greedy on a regular basis. I also enjoyed the mind games that can be played with the resource pool…that is, trying to tailor the remaining resources to cause the people to revolt against an opponent instead of you. Doing this is rather sneaky and requires a pretty good memory.

From a learning curve standpoint, it took me a little bit of time to understand how everything flowed together. It’s not until the fifth phase of a round do your supporters actually mean something so new players may be like, “oh yeah…that’s why I want those guys on my side”. After all, whoever has the most gets to be King and thus, a statue of their color on the score track. I didn’t really begin appreciating the game until I got past the initial hurdle of tying all of the gameplay mechanics together, so if you don’t get “it” right away, try to be patient and stick with it.

The components are well done and very colorful. The modular boards will ensure a slightly different playthrough each time, since different terrain spaces have different costs associated with them. There was no box insert sadly, though there were enough baggies to hold all the smaller pieces. “Tumult Royale” combines push-your-luck, area control, and resource management mechanics very, making it something you should consider picking up (or at the very least, look into). The $39.99 MSRP is a little steep for my tastes, though you can find it for about $32 on Amazon as of 12/4/15.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tumult-royale/feed/035107Codenameshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/codenames/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/codenames/#respondFri, 04 Dec 2015 19:17:31 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35086It seems like “Codenames” is causing quite a stir among the gaming community as of late so needless to say I had to try it out. In this spy-themed game, you’ll be trying to figure out which code names belong to the agents of your color before the other team can do the same with their own agents. While the game is designed for four or more players (who break up into two teams), you can play a purely cooperative game with simply two people. So queue up the “Get Smart” theme and ready the “cone of silence”, for only the most clever team will find their agents first.

The game can be played cooperatively or competitively. I’ll opt to cover the latter, as the co-op rules are more of a variant to the base game.

Firstly, players break off into teams of two (one red, one blue). One player from each time will be designated as the spymaster, both of whom will sit next to each other. The spymasters will then randomly choose a key card, sharing it between them and only them. Twenty-five codename cards are drawn at random and placed into a 5×5 grid. The double agent card is flipped to the color of the team going first (the key card will indicate who goes first). The first team to contact all of their agents, wins the game.

On a team’s turn, the spymaster will give a one word clue followed by a number. The use of a sand-timer is optional. The word should relate to the codenames of their color, while the number indicates how many codenames fit that clue.

Example: Two of your words are NUT and BARK. Both of these grow on trees, so you say “tree: 2”.

The rest of the players on that team will coordinate and guess one of the codename cards, hoping it belongs to an agent of their color.

If the field operative touches a card belonging to his or her team, the spymaster covers the word with an agent card in that color. The team may guess another word (no extra clue is given!).

If the field operative touches an innocent bystander, the spymaster covers it with an innocent bystander card. This ends the turn.

If the field operative touches a card belonging to the other team, the word is covered by one of the other team’s agent cards. This ends the turn. (And it helps the other team.)

If the field operative touches the assassin, the word is covered by the assassin card. This ends the game! The team that contacted the assassin loses.

Play continues until one team manages to reveal all of the agents of their color. The team who does, wins the game! It could also end if one team reveals the assassin, in which case that team loses.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

This might sound kind of odd, but I actually enjoy the two player co-op variant just as much (if not more) than the core game. That’s not to say that the game itself isn’t a lot of fun, mind you…I just tend to like team-building / cooperative games a bit more than competitive ones. Those of who you have kids may be able to relate…it’s much more fun as a family to collectively beat a game that has no hard feelings when it loses. The gameplay mechanics themselves are easy to learn, so no worries if you’re a casual gamer easily intimidated by other games you’ve come across in your travels.

I’m a sucker for games that employ some type of stealth / who-done-it mechanic, like “Clue: The Great Museum Caper” or the more simplistic “Guess Who?” There’s just something about looking at a grid and knowing that one wrong move will end the game for you. “Minesweeper” addicts know what I’m talking about. I’m pleased to report that I had a similar experience here when I wasn’t the spymaster. When you are the spymaster, everything changes and instead of worrying about which codename to pick, you’ll have to come up with the most efficient one-word clues possible. You’ll have to tread carefully though, as some players like to make connections from clues that are so round-about that even you didn’t think of it. As such, sometimes saying “tree-2” is better than say, “tree-5”.

“Codenames” is an outstanding game. When opting for the core rules, it’s better suited for parties…the more people you have playing, the better. When opting for the cooperative rules, then it serves well with two players. Three player games can be either or, with one person being a field operative for both sides while the other two spymasters attempting to win the game for their color team. Alternatively, the three players could simply team up like in a two player game. I’ve seen the price fluctuate on Amazon from $15-$30…I’d say $20 is fair for what you’re getting here so try to find it for that price or less if you can.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/codenames/feed/035086Spell Bookhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/spell-book/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/spell-book/#respondFri, 04 Dec 2015 15:23:13 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34906Mana? Check. Spell cards? Check. Creature cards? Check. Life points? Check. Elements? Check. Yes, friends…today we’re going to don our wizard robes and have at it via “Spell Book”, a 2-4 player fast-paced spell casting card game. The core game comes with 100 different spell cards, though expansions exist that add even more cards to the mix. Before we take our wizard robes to the dry cleaner to prepare for our upcoming battle (as wizards are wont to do), I’d like to thank Game Designer Peter Jank from CnD Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Spell Book: 2 Players*, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Editor’s Note: Buying a second copy of the core game will allow you to play with up to four players. Alternatively, you can buy the Deluxe Edition (which also includes all of the expansions).

Components

The core game includes 100 spell cards, 6 mana cards, and a rule book. One copy supports two players and can be found on The Game Crafter for $19.99. Expansions sold separately.

The Deluxe Edition includes 264 spell cards, 12 mana cards, 25 promo cards, 2 dice, updated card art, and a rule book. One copy supports up to four players and can be found on The Game Crafter for $44.99.

I received a copy of the core game and will thus be featuring it instead of the other.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player gets a deck of fifty cards and three mana cards to put in front of them. The first player is chosen at random and both players draw up to five cards to form their starting hand.

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Draw up to five cards.

2. Untap their mana cards.

3. Play cards by tapping mana. (Some cards can be played on an opponent’s turn)

In “Spell Book”, a player’s deck acts as their life force. When a player receives damage, they discard cards from the top of their deck equal to the damage taken. Play continues until one player’s deck runs out, in which case they lose the game.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I dabble in “Magic: The Gathering” here and there, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert my any means…quite the contrary. There’s just too many cards for me to memorize and I play too many games to be able to devote the time required to learn them all. I didn’t have that problem with “Spell Book”, thankfully. I can still tap mana, play spells, and summon creatures…almost everything I enjoy doing in “Magic: The Gathering” but without the headache to go along with it. As such, “Spell Book” is indeed the lighter game of the two, but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less fun.

Along those lines, there’s only a few spell types you’ll really need to remember: attack, protect, heal, trap, summon, and equipment. There’s also a few symbols on these cards, like mana or free play, that grant extra abilities or change the game in some way. One other major thing to remember is that attacks have an elemental association with them and in order to successfully stop the attack, you’ll need a block card that lists the same element. Besides that, everything is fairly self-explanatory and the bulk of your time will be devoted trying to figure out how to chain cards together for maximum effect. For example, you may find yourself in a position to where you can play a powerful yet expensive card, but you might opt to wait until a card with “free play” comes along so that you can drop that expensive card without spending mana.

The artwork is well done and the card quality decent. I think the price of $19.99 is a bit on the expensive side, as card games like “Star Realms” retail for around $10-$15 and have a good deal of cards in the box. I’ve been told countless times by various developers that the development cost is higher when you’re not mass producing in bulk which I totally get, so this developer may have no choice but to charge twenty bucks for a card game. Still, as a consumer, we tend not to think of these things and instead focus on how much it’ll affect our wallet. Luckily, five dollars isn’t a make it or break it kind of thing (unlike “Dead of Winter”, which originally retailed on Amazon for $80 before it dropped in price…ouch!). On the other hand, you only have to buy this game once…with “Magic: The Gathering”, it’s easy to drop over a hundred bucks on boosters and fat packs.

Long story short…whether you’re in the mood to cast “vortex”, “dragon’s breath”, or “raise the dead”, “Spell Book” has you covered.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Editor’s Note: The developer reduced the price to $15.99 after the posting of this review.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/spell-book/feed/034906Dice Cityhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dice-city/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dice-city/#respondThu, 03 Dec 2015 16:07:37 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34202Dice. City. Two little four-letter words that tell you almost everything you need to know when looking at it for the first time. “Dice City”, as you probably figured out by now, is a dice rolling game to where the dice values indicate which buildings within your city will activate (similar to “Machi Koro“). What’s different here is that the buildings are laid out on a grid and can be replaced with other buildings one may purchase from the supply. Besides gathering resources and gaining victory points, you can attack other players and lock out their buildings. I’m a sucker for city-builders so this was a must-grab for me, but did I like it enough to come back to it again? Keep reading to find out!

There’s an entire page devoted to game setup in the manual, so I’ll opt to offer the hi-lites. Essentially, each player receives a board and five dice (one of each color). The lumber mill, quarry, mine, and regular army cards are stacked into their own piles and the rest of the location cards are shuffled to form a face-down draw deck (eight are drawn face-up to form the supply). The bandits and trade ship cards are set up into their own piles by VP. The tokens are separated and form a supply. Lastly, each player rolls their dice and assigns them to their player board by color and number. For example, if you roll a three on a blue die, then find the coordinate on the board where the blue row and three column intersect. Whoever last rolled a die in any game prior to this one gets the first player token.

On a player’s turn, they’ll observe the following steps:

1. Use Dice Step – With each die, the active player can take one of the following actions:

Use the location beneath the die and resolve its ability.

Move another die to an adjacent space on that die’s own row.

Discard four of the location cards in the display that are available to build and reveal four new ones. Important: You may only take this action once per turn.

Reactivate a deactivated location anywhere in your city.

Pass and gain a pass token. Important: You may only take this action once per turn.

In addition to using dice, the active player may also spend two pass tokens to take one of the following actions (as many times as you have the two pass tokens to do so):

Gain one resource of your choice

Increase your army strength by +1 for the turn.

Force all other players to re-roll one of their dice of your choice (this happens in clockwise order starting from your left).

After you use each die, remove it from the location and place it to the side of your player board.

2. Attack Step – Attack bandits, locations, or stock via the calculated army strength. The active player’s army strength is good for that turn only. You can split your attack if you have enough army strength to do attack multiple targets, though your army strength is spent as it is used. Each location/bandit card has a defense value and your army strength must be equal to or greater in order to successfully attack it. Taking from another player’s stock requires two army strength.

3. Building & Trade Step – The active player may purchase buildings and place it on their board, covering up the building behind it. Alternatively, they use the trade ship to export goods for VP.

4. End of Turn Step – The active player may store one of each resource in their stock (the rest are returned). Then, they’ll roll all dice and assign them to their board for their next turn.

Player’s continue taking turns until:

All of the cards have been taken from all three of the bandits piles.

All of the cards have been taken on two or more trade ship piles.

The location deck runs out of cards.

Two or more rows in a player’s city have been filled with built locations and none of them have any deactivation tokens (optional — the player that meets this condition chooses if he or she wishes the game to end or not).

When one of the conditions is met, the players continue until everyone has had an equal number of turns.

When the final round ends, each player counts the VP tokens they have in front of them and the VP from the trade ship and bandits cards they have taken, and adds the VP values of all the locations in their city, both active and deactivated. Locations that have been discarded by building other locations on top of them are not considered to be part of the city any more so they do not count towards scoring. The player with the most VP, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Dice City” hits that “not too difficult but not too easy” sweet spot with me, making it a game I’ll be coming back to as time permits. I just love how many options one has at any one time in the game, regardless of your strategy. For example, you could opt to go a military route and cover up resource generating locations with military structures. It might sound like it would be a simple “Hulk Smash” scenario once you get that established, but you still have the option of going after bandits or shutting down/stealing your opponent’s locations/resources. Alternatively, you could cover up the existing military spaces with more economic buildings in the hopes of easily nabbing those trade ships with an influx of resources. Of course, a mix of the two is more than viable.

Getting back to that options bit, the dice are not always going to give you the values you want at any point in time. While it may seem a bit harsh that you have a one in six chance of rolling the space you want on a colored row, you do have the option of moving dice by giving up other dice. This makes the one and six spaces a little less popular for the structures you want to hit on a regular basis. If you want to roll a three for example, you could roll a two or four and only have to give up one die to move it. The one and six don’t have a value on the other side of them, making them a bit harder to roll onto. It’s all a matter of odds really, but the moving dice thing really makes me feel like I have more control over the dice after I roll them.

“Dice City” is fantastic, plain and simple. I love the way everything comes together and the components are both colorful and eye-pleasing. It’s “Machi Koro”, but taken to a whole new level and then some. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some “Machi Koro”, but folks who want more of a punch would do well to check out this dice rolling city builder.

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dice-city/feed/034202Linko!http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/linko/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/linko/#respondWed, 02 Dec 2015 00:18:17 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35078“Linko!” (a.k.a. “Abluxxen”) doesn’t discriminate when it comes to card values and scoring. You see, every card you collect, regardless of its value, is worth one point. Collect the most cards and you win, simple as that. Or is it? After a few minutes, you’ll realize that keeping the cards in your pile is actually a lot harder than it looks. Let’s take a quick peek at how this particular card game plays, shall we?

Linko!: 2-5 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 20 Minutes

Components

The game includes 104 number cards (8 sets, each from 1-13), 5 joker cards (X’s), 1 Linko card, and a rulebook.

Setup & Gameplay

The youngest player gets the Linko card and goes first but honestly, handing out the Linko card isn’t necessary as players won’t have to worry about taking an equal number of turns when the game ends. The deck of cards is shuffled and each player receives thirteen cards to form their starting hand. Six are dealt face-up in the middle of the table to form a draw pool.

On a player’s turn, they’ll pick a number of a card from their hand, then lay down as many of that number as they want. If a player has three 5’s, for example, they could lay down one, two, or all three 5’s. Any cards played go on top of the previous set, if any exist in their pile.

Once the cards are laid down, they’ll compare the number of cards they laid in the set with everyone else’s top set, going clockwise. Any opponent who has the same number of cards in their set as the one just played will be forced to participate in what comes next. If Player A laid down three 5’s, Player B’s top set was three 2’s, Player C’s top set was three 7’s, and Player D’s top set was four 2’s, then both Player B and C will be involved.

In the above example, Player A will either take Player B’s set and place it into their hand or instead opt to reject it. If the latter, then Player B must either take the set back into their hand or remove them from the game. Should Player B remove the cards from the game or if Player A takes the cards, then Player B must draw that many from the face-up pool or face-down deck. Player A then follows suit with Player C, then ignoring Player D. The face-up pool is replenished once a robbed player draws all of their cards.

This continues until one player runs out of cards or until the deck and face-up pool runs out. Players count the number of cards in their pile (worth one point each) then subtract the number of cards in their hand (minus one point each) to derive a total. Whoever has the highest score, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Linko!” isn’t half bad as card games go and has a relatively unique card-snatching mechanic to boot (as far as I know it’s unique). The biggest hurdle you’ll have playing this game is getting your mind to wrap around the way the cards resolve when sets interact with one another. It’s not terribly difficult to understand…just different. Luckily, there’s a flowchart in the rulebook that outlines all the if-then’s that are possible when you’re prompted to resolve said instances.

While there is luck in drawing cards of the same number from the outset, you’ll be using a little bit of strategy to build upon these sets to make them difficult to snatch once you lay them down. For example, you might have three 10’s in your hand, but there’s two 10’s in the card row/pool that you’d like to use along with them. You could play a pair of 2’s on your turn as bait for someone else to snatch up, allowing you to restock your hand with the 10’s you wanted. After all, it’s more difficult to steal a set of five cards then it is a set of three. In the above example, your opponents would have to top your set of five 10’s with five 11’s, 12’s, or etc. in order to steal them.

“Linko!” played fairly quickly despite all the card stealing and would make an excellent filler game. The boys seemed to like it whereas the girls weren’t all that impressed. Then again, they do tend to be picky gamers. I personally enjoyed this one and would not only recommend it, but gladly play it again as time permitted.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/linko/feed/035078The Last Spikehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-last-spike/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-last-spike/#respondMon, 30 Nov 2015 21:27:52 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34991I don’t know what it is about train games, but I have yet to meet one that I didn’t like. “Ticket to Ride“, “Sid Meier’s Railroads” on the PC…even “Continental Express“, as simplistic as it is, isn’t bad. “The Last Spike” is a bit more economical, tasking players with cooperating to build a continuous railway from St. Louis to Sacramento. Those who accumulate the most money by acquiring the right land cards at the right time in order to get big payouts, wins the game. I’d like to extend a quick thank-you to Grant Dalgliesh from Columbia Games for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.

The Last Spike: 2-6 Players, Ages 10+, Average Play Time = 45 Minutes

Components

The game includes one board (9 cities and the 12 routes that link them), 48 railway tracks (each with a unique letter/number code matching the spaces on the board), 45 land cards (5 for each of the 9 cities), and currency chips (white = $1000, red = $5000, blue = $10,000).

Setup & Gameplay

Firstly, each player gets a certain amount of money, depending on how many people are playing the game. The forty-eight railway tiles are placed face-down and mixed up, each player drawing one tile. The player closest to A1 goes first. The tiles are then put back, mixed up again, and each player draws four to form their hand (which is kept in secret). The land cards are put into separate stacks by city, the cards going in order from lowest on top (free land grant) to the most expensive on bottom. In a two player game, one tile is drawn from the mix unseen and removed from the game.

A player’s turn consists of the following:

1. Laying a track tile (mandatory) – The active player must lay one of their four track tiles onto the board, matching the letter/number code appropriately and paying the cost. A tile must be placed next to a city or any existing tile, otherwise the cost is doubled. If they cannot afford to place a tile, they must raise the cash by selling land (at half cost, rounding up). A payout occurs if two cities become connected with tiles. Every owner of either city receives a payout from the bank equal to the value listed on the matching city’s land card. The value will change, depending on how many cards you have of that city. Any player who lays the first track next to any city receives its free land grant card, though they may not purchase another land card that turn.

2. Buying land (optional) – The active player may buy any one land card assuming that the free grant card of the city in question has been claimed. The cost of the land card is listed on the top line.

3. Draw a tile from the pile.

Play continues until a path is formed from St. Louis to Sacramento. The player who laid down the last tile (or “last spike”) gets $20,000 and any payouts occur as normal. The players’ land cards are discarded and the player with the most money, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“The Last Spike” is “Ticket to Ride” meets “Acquire”…at least, that was my first impression after playing my first game. It’s like “Ticket to Ride” in the sense that you’re laying down tracks between two cities, but it’s more like “Acquire” in the way the gameplay flows. Like “Acquire”, each track space on the board has a letter/number combination along with a matching tile that can be played by players on their turn. In addition, payouts can occur throughout adding a prediction element to gameplay. That is…will you decide to purchase cards in “X” city or “Y” city (or perhaps a little of both), in the hopes of seeing a payout? Not all cities will be lucrative as there are multiple paths from St. Louis to Sacramento (connecting them ends the game). “Acquire” is more complicated than “The Last Spike”, I feel, so no need to worry if you’re a casual gamer who is easily intimidated by economical games. This one is pretty light as economic games go.

Some people hate that I comment on the price in my reviews, though as a I consumer first, I feel my remarks to be extremely relevant based on my experience with buying and playing a TON of games. The going rate for “The Last Spike” is about $40 on the official website, higher than I would have pegged it to be. Games like “Dead of Winter” and “Stone Age” have fantastic components, for example, and both can be bought for around that price on Amazon. Here, you’re getting a lot of small wood tokens (either circular or square) along with some cards. Admittedly, the cards do like pretty nice in that they are colorful and easy to read. When you compare the number of components in this game with others like the aforementioned games though, then it leaves you to wonder why they have the same price. As I’ve been told countless times, some developers/publishers are able to buy in bulk (lowering the manufacturing price per unit) whereas Indie developers tend to not have the money for such investments. As a consumer though, you tend to not care about those things…rather, just what comes out of your wallet.

With that said, “The Last Spike” hits that certain sweet spot. For those of you who aren’t familiar with me, I tend to like games that are easy to learn but have a moderate amount of strategic depth. Turns in this game are incredibly simple and you’ll indeed spend more time thinking about what to do on your turn as opposed to what rules you have to follow. The fact that it is like “Acquire” but playing a bit more quickly is a bonus…sometimes I don’t want to devote sixty to ninety minutes in an economic game. “The Last Spike” lets you get your economic fix in half that time, making it a viable option on school nights. Everything about this game (price aside) is incredibly good and if you can afford to pick it up, then I’d recommend you do so.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/the-last-spike/feed/034991WAR for the White Househttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/war-for-the-white-house/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/war-for-the-white-house/#respondMon, 30 Nov 2015 02:44:26 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35005Oh, politics…no matter where I turn, you’re there to remind me that the system currently employed by the US Government is broken. I could be browsing the net, walking down the street, or cooking dinner…it doesn’t matter. Hey, don’t hate…I’m not the one who let Donald Trump get as far as he has. Money talks, I suppose. ANYWAY, we’re not here to talk about my political views (or lack thereof)…rather, we’re here to look at “WAR for the White House”. It’s a card game that essentially plays out like “War”, but with a political twist. Before we get started, I’d like to thank John Kaiser III from GPAC, LLC. for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.

WAR for the White House: 2-4 Players, Ages 6+, Average Play Time = 15-20 Minutes

Components

There are actually two versions of the game:

WAR for the White House ($9.99) – The game includes 52 playing cards and 4 intel cards.

WAR for the White House: Hardball Edition ($16.99) – The game includes 52 playing cards, 4 intel cards, and 100 chips (red, white, and blue). In addition to the game mode that plays out like “War”, there’s a poker variant (hence where the chips come into play).

I received a copy of the former, so I’ll be covering that version below.

Setup & Gameplay

Setting up the game is as simple as shuffling the cards (minus the four intel cards which contain the instructions) and dealing them all out. Players keep their cards in a face-down stack without looking at them.

The game is played over a series of rounds. On each round, players draw their top card. When a player draws a primary or secondary objective, the player continues to draw cards face up until an ordnance card appears (any card other than an objective). The player with the highest card wins/captures all the cards in play.

Primary and secondary objectives are placed off to the side into a player’s score pile while the rest go face-down on the bottom of their deck. A player who draws the fortunes of war card must place their top three cards face-down on the table and surrender them to the winner of the round. While captured objective cards remain face-up in front of the player who captures them, they can be taken by others when certain cards are played.

WAR breaks out when there is a tie between the cards. In that event, players continue flipping cards until the tie is broken. The winner (highest card) captures all of them. Only the winning card has any effect in a WAR.

The winner of the game is the person who can win two games (called campaigns). To win a game, a player needs to do one of three things:

1. Capture 5 primary objectives.

2. Capture 1 primary objective and 5 secondary objectives.

3. Knock out all the other players by making them run out of cards (called attrition).

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

While “WAR for the White House” is a different take on the card game of “War”, it’s not without its problems. First of all, the deck’s box lid was fastened shut with a sticker that was a pain to remove. While the sticker itself was nicely themed (being an unofficial “Department of Political Warfare” seal), I had to rip both it and part of the lid to shreds just getting it off the box so that I could access the cards. I could have done without the sticker and really, found it to be more trouble than it was worth.

There were some also some small hiccups with the manual…or rather, the intel cards. The same rule is listed twice on two separate intel cards, but under different sections. More specifically, intel page 2 states, “Only the winning card has any effect in a WAR” near the middle of the card while intel page 3 states, “Only the winning card has any effect in a WAR” under the WAR section on the bottom of the card. So did the rule on page 2 intend to mean that if two ordnance cards of different values are flipped (not resulting in a WAR), then only the winning card’s ability takes effect? Or do both cards activate, meaning the above rule was accidentally/intentionally listed twice?

A quick email to the developers confirmed that it was the former…that is, only the winning card’s ability activates (WAR or not). The instructions, in my opinion, could have simply said something along the lines of “WAR or not, only the winning card activates” instead of listing a rule twice that still fails to address what happens when a WAR doesn’t occur. While there is an instructional video, it’s absurdly long for how simple the game is and full of sound effects that repeat themselves to the point where you just want to close the browser and never watch “Patton” again. As a side note, the rules state that captured numbered cards go to the bottom of the deck…I found this to be rather silly and instead created a face-up discard pile for captured cards to be flipped over and used as a new draw deck once the current one runs out.

That’s not to say that “WAR for the White House” is all bad. The artwork is eye-catching and the card quality fairly good. While there are references to things like the “War on Education” and “Carpet Bombing”, there’s nothing here that would offend anyone politically or personally. That is, these references are in words only with nothing underneath them indicating that the player should support or reject any particular issue. I also like the fact that you don’t have to understand politics at all to be able to play the game…meaning you could probably have slapped a different theme on it and everything would still play the same.

“WAR for the White House” is a neat idea, but unfortunately it didn’t strike me as unique or outstanding in any particular way. Part of me suspects that this was probably the intent considering that the game doesn’t require any political knowledge to play. In other words, its simplicity makes it accessible to everyone. For that reason, it’s “OK” enough to recommend as a quick filler or if you’re looking for an alternate take on the game of “War” (despite the problems I had with the rules and box). The price tag of $9.99 is on par with other card games on the market though as mentioned above, there is a poker variant via the “Hardball Edition” should you want more out of the game.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/war-for-the-white-house/feed/035005Concordiahttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/concordia/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/concordia/#commentsFri, 27 Nov 2015 17:26:27 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34923While some people may not agree with me, I found “Grand Ages: Medieval” to be an extremely fun & relatively peaceful economic simulator. Sure, you occasionally have to send your armies out to deal with panthers or bandits, but most of your time is spent thinking about resource production. My love for this particular gameplay feature is what prompted me to pick up “Concordia”, a game set during the rule of the Roman Empire. Here, players will be trying to earn victory points in a number of different ways using a combination of resource management, deck building, and by colonizing land.

Game setup is pretty involved, so I’ll just offer the highlights to keep the review moving. Firstly, some cards for sale will be taken out of the game, depending on the player count. Players will then choose one of the two player boards (Imperium = 3-5 players, Italia = 2-4 players). Each player gets a storehouse, some starting resources & money, a deck of starting personality cards, and pieces of one color. The last player gets the Praefectus Magnus card. The board is seeded randomly with city tokens which determine where the bonus markers go and cards for sale.

On a player’s turn, they’ll play one card from their hand and take the related actions. After this is done, the card goes into a discard pile to be collected later (when a tribune card is played). Using these cards, players will be moving colonists around the game board (architect), building houses (architect), producing goods (prefect), placing new colonists (colonist), receiving money (various cards), copying the action from another player (diplomat), purchasing new personality cards (senator & consul), and other things. A player can use the Praefectus Magnus card when taking the prefect action to earn two bonus resources instead of one, then passes the card to the next player.

The game ends after a player purchased the last personality card from the display or after a player builds their 15th house. That player is awarded the Concordia card and everyone else gets their final turn. Victory points are earned a number of ways, like through the value of all goods in a player’s storehouse (Vesta), for each house inside a non-brick city (Jupiter), for each province that contains at least one of a player’s house (Saturnus), for each type of good the player produces with their houses (Mercurius), for each colonist on the board (Mars), and for each city of the related city type as depicted on the specialist’s card (Minerva). The person with the most points, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Normally I shy away from games that take longer than forty-five minutes to play. If you’re a busy parent like me, then you’ll understand why. I made an exception in this case for a few reasons, one of which was that the PDF rulebook I glanced at was four pages. The game is extremely streamlined and easy to play, despite its lengthy playtime. There’s also the fact that I really enjoy playing economic simulation games on the PC (“Grand Ages: Medieval“, etc.). These two personal selling points made me splurge a bit and pick up the game, despite the fact that it set me back $45 (the price on Amazon as of 11/16/15). I mention this because for those who know me, I’m quite the penny-pincher. The fact that I picked up a game costing more than my usual $20-$30 limit says quite a bit.

I was surprised by how well gameplay flowed despite the mix-match of genres involved. All three aspects: deck building, resource management, and area control, seemed to work very well together. Sure, you can make the claim that many games combine genres all the time…”Age of Empires III“, for example, combined RTS elements with deck building. With that said, less than half of the games I’ve played in my lifetime did it so well that they didn’t feel awkward to play. Of course, this is based on my experiences mind you…yours may be different. “Concordia” didn’t feel awkward at all. A little confusing at first, what with all the actions you can take and the ways you can score at the game’s end, but not awkward.

Once you get past the learning curve (which mainly consists of figuring out what you can and should do on your turn), you’ll probably find “Concordia” to be as enjoyable as I did. The game looks great from a component standpoint, with the rulebook being pretty thorough in its explanations. This game falls under the category of “easy to play, yet difficult to master”, I feel. There’s a lot to consider when your turn rolls around, hence where the lengthy play time comes into the picture. I still think the price could have been a bit less (I would have been happy at $35), but that could be the penny-pincher in me talking again. If you’re comfortable dropping $40-$50 though and enjoy games with economic themes, then give this one a look.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/concordia/feed/434923PRESS RELEASE: “RONE” Seeking Support On Kickstarterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-rone-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-rone-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/#respondThu, 26 Nov 2015 16:19:13 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35038I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic games. There’s just something about the idea of man’s creature comforts being taken away to see how one would truly survive in such a setting. Despite what you may think though, not all post-apocalyptic games have to involve zombies. “RONE”, a game seeking your support on Kickstarter, is one fine example. In this card game for 2 or 4 players, you’ll be recruiting an army consisting of soldiers, battle machines, and super-mutants and then equipping them with some interesting technologies.

Game Creator Štěpán Štefaník offered the following on “RONE”:

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“Humans. It just seems inevitable that we’re gonna fight against one-another, doesn’t it? Even when everything’s gone to hell and we’re living in a post-apocalyptic world, there’s going to be fighting over whatever meager resources are leftover. That’s the story behind RONE – Races of New Era, a new card game that’s up on Kickstarter now and looking for some funding love. RONE (Races of New Era) is a strategic post-apocalyptic card game for 2 or 4 players combining unique and innovative game mechanisms into well-balanced gaming environment full of exciting gameplay.”

“Game play immerses you in a dark world where people are fighting to reestablish their place in the fallout following a global nuclear war. The war evaporated every achievement of the human race, leaving behind only a handful of usable resources for the remaining scattered groups of survivors. Now, they must fight each other for dominance over the remnants of the past. It is now your turn to join the global war: recruit soldiers, battle machines, powerful hybrids or tremendous mutants into your army; then equip them with the available technologies and show your enemies who rules the new world order.”

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About Štěpán:

“My name is Štěpán Štefaník and I live in a tiny picturesque village in the Czech Republic where currently spend the most time with my wife and 3-year-old daughter. They are filling my life together. I am enthusiastic board game (especially card game) player who wanted to create something that meets his needs, something that would be really fun to play. So I decided to create RONE – unique card game with unusual mechanics, awesome artwork and great play.”

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You can learn more about and support “RONE” by visiting its Kickstarter page, here:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/press-release-rone-seeking-support-on-kickstarter/feed/035038Dead of Winterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dead-of-winter/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dead-of-winter/#respondWed, 25 Nov 2015 18:29:00 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34936In “Dead of Winter”, you and a group of survivors are trying to survive the harsh winter in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. Players will be receiving a secret objective that they’ll need to complete, on top of the colony goal chosen each game. Some secret objectives even involve being a hidden traitor, tasking owners to throw the game any way they can without being discovered. To top that off, your group of players are also responsible for more people than just yourselves…meaning you’ll have to endeavor to keep your no-named colonists fed each round while being sure to clean up the trash afterwards (literally). Only the strong will survive…maybe.

Dead of Winter: 2-5 Players, Ages 13+, Average Play Time = 60-120 Minutes

The game can be played a number of different ways and can be pretty involved, so I’ll opt to skip game setup in order to keep things moving. I will offer however that the game can be played cooperatively with or without a traitor mechanic. In the case of the latter (known as the co-op variant), players do not receive secret objectives but use the hardcore side of the main objective card. In the two player variant, the co-op rules are observed though players get seven cards instead of five and four survivors instead of three. Betrayer, hardcore, and player elimination variants make the game even more challenging.

The game is played over a series of rounds (the number of which is determined by the main objective card chosen during setup) and each round consists of two phases: 1) Player Turns Phase and the 2) Colony Phase.

Player Turns Phase

At the beginning of a player’s turn, the player to the right of the active player will draw a crossroads card and keep its contents secret. It’ll be revealed only if the active player triggers the effect listed on the card.

1. Reveal Crisis – The top card of the crisis deck is revealed.

2. Roll Action Dice – Each player rolls their dice. They should have one die for each survivor, plus one.

3. Player Turns – Each player, starting with the first player, takes their turn by taking actions. Some actions require dice, others do not. Players can attack zombies, attack other players, search a location, barricade, clean waste, attract, use a survivor ability, play a card, add cards to the crisis (face-down), move a survivor, spend food tokens, request, hand off, and vote to exile.

Colony Phase

1. Pay Food – Every two survivors in the colony needs one food token. If you have enough food, then the appropriate number of tokens are removed. Otherwise, they stay there however a starvation token is added, dropping morale.

2. Check Waste – Morale drops by one for every ten cards in the waste pile.

3. Resolve Crisis – The cards contributed to the crisis are shuffled and revealed. Cards not matching the needed item type count against your total. If the crisis is not prevented, then you’ll follow the instructions on the card.

4. Add Zombies – One zombie is added to the colony for every two survivors present there. One zombie is added at every non-colony location for every one survivor present. Noise tokens are resolved and if appropriate, more zombies are added.

5. Check Main Objective – If the main objective is completed, the game ends.

6. Move Round Tracker – The tracker moves down by one. When the round tracker is zero, the game ends.

7. Pass First Player Token – The first player token is passed counter-clockwise.

If morale at any point reaches zero, the game ends in failure. Morale can be lost a number of ways, like when survivors die or through starvation. When a player loses all of their survivors, they’ll discard their entire hand and choose a new survivor from the deck. Rounds continue until a game ending condition is met. The only players who win are those who completed their secret objective.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Battlestar Galactica” meets zombies…at least, that’s what came to mind the moment I finished reading the manual. Like “Battlestar Galactica”, all players will be contributing cards toward a crisis goal from round to round, trying to stave off zombies in the process. Of course, cards contributed this way are done so face down, giving the traitor (if there is one) a chance to really mess things up. It’s worth noting that the secret objectives (and thus the traitor mechanic) are only utilized if you have three or more players. Two players automatically apply the pure co-op variant with a few rule changes to balance things.

Speaking of variants, I appreciate that the game gives you multiple ways to play. The manual lists a co-op variant, hardcore variant, betrayer variant, and player elimination variant, though you can alter the rules as you see fit. I myself prefer a more casual experience, so flipping the objective card to the normal side even while playing co-op is a possibility. You could also try adding more survivors to the mix giving everyone more dice to roll on their turns, though food demands will go up as a result. Even when playing via the core rules, the game includes multiple scenarios ranging in both difficulty and play time.

The game itself is incredibly thematic with the artwork being above average. It also came with a LOT of baggies, which I’m thankful for as there are a lot of little pieces/tokens. The learning curve is rather high, I feel, as there are a lot of things to remember while playing out a round. The player reference boards do help, but you’ll often be forced to flip through the manual for something specific. The number of actions alone is staggering, so be sure to allot extra play time for your first few games. The game can seem punishing to the uninitiated, so my advice is to be patient and cheat a little if you must if your group gets frustrated easily. I say this because some gamers really enjoy learning as they go and being defeated mercilessly in the process, while others do not.

As with any cooperative game, a player who likes to control things or is just an asshat overall will more than likely ruin the experience for everyone else. On the other hand, this game is will leave you wanting more if you get the right group together…especially if you include the secret objectives and have a suspected traitor in your midst. The game can be incredibly fun and nail-bitingly tense when you realize that the only person you can trust is yourself, but are forced to work together with others anyway to prevent crisis cards from repeatedly failing. Of course, that may be a good thing if you end up being the traitor yourself.

As an experienced yet casual gamer who enjoys cooperative experiences, I can recommend this one. Just be forewarned that learning the game can take some time and there are some cards with adult themes (though they can be removed beforehand).

Final Verdict: 9/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dead-of-winter/feed/034936Starship Battleshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/starship-battles/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/starship-battles/#respondTue, 24 Nov 2015 22:30:30 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=35011Raising shields and locking phasers never gets old, though I don’t get to do these things as often as I’d like. “Starship Battles”, as the name implies, is all about the “pew pew” without the hassle of trying to talk things out first. Each player commands their own starship with their ultimate goal being to destroy their opponents. Oh, and there’s a drafting mechanic with regard to the ship’s compartments so you’ll almost never have the same twice. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank Brian Schaeflein from Dwarf Cove Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

In addition, I received a number of purple and orange cards, but they are not mentioned under the components section of the rulebook. I believe them to be scenario and crew cards, respectively. I’ll touch on this further in the review.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player will be allotted fourteen invisible resource points at the beginning of the game and will be dealt two crew cards & three cards from each of the three component decks (yellow, red, and blue). Each player then selects two of each type of ship component to keep, passing the rest clockwise. After that, players keep any number of cards so as long as the sum of their resources (the red number on each card) doesn’t exceed fourteen. Any cards not chosen are discarded. The components are laid face-up, preferably separated by color/section for ease of play.

It’s worth noting that the rulebook states that each player gets one scenario card, or special objective / challenge goal that they’ll personally try to beat. I recommend doing away with this for your first few games until you get the basics down. Additionally, the game can be played cooperatively against certain scenario cards. To keep this all moving, I’ll opt to cover co-op briefly in the review.

The game is broken up across a number of turns consisting of seven phases:

1. Draw attack markers – Players count the number of attack symbols on their remaining ship compartments and draw that many ADR markers, keeping them hidden from opponents. For each command symbol on their remaining ship components, players may set aside ADR markers showing zero and replace them from the ADR marker pile.

2. Place attack markers – Players may divide their attack markers between any opponents they choose, face-down so that the numbers are hidden.

3. Draw defend markers – Players count the number of defend symbols on their remaining ship compartments and draw that many ADR markers, keeping them hidden from opponents. For each command symbol on their remaining ship components, players may set aside ADR markers showing zero and replace them from the ADR marker pile.

4. Place defend markers – Players may divide their defend markers between any attack markers they choose by placing them face-up in front of any attack marker, up to 2 per attack marker.

5. Take damage – Each player flips the attack markers in front of them. For each attack, the players total their defend markers arrayed against it. If the attack number is greater than the defend total, the defending player must apply damage points to his cards equal to the difference. The red damage markers track damage.

6. Repair – Players count the number of repair symbols on their remaining ship compartments and draw that many ADR markers. They’ll then choose which ADR markers to use on which damaged ship components, removing that amount of damage points from that ship component.

7. Each player discards any compartment cards that have reached their damage limit (the red number).

The game continues until only one player remains…that person is the winner!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Firstly, I’d like to get the negatives out of the way. The rulebook is half-baked in its current form and the tutorial video on the game’s store page (link below) is incomplete. For example, the video nor the components section of the rulebook mentions anything about the crew & scenario cards. To be fair, there is a short section of the rulebook outlining the different scenario types. The crew cards, on the other hand, are only mentioned briefly during game setup. Most of this content is admittedly self-explanatory, but first time players may be confused. Honestly, I feel like the scenario and crew cards were a rushed, last-minute addition to the game. For that reason, I recommend doing away with them until you are comfortable playing with just the red, yellow, and blue component cards.

Scenario and crew cards aside, I enjoyed the art style and the overall simplicity of the game. There’s a healthy mix of luck and strategy, I feel. In the case of the former, you’re at the mercy of those ADR tokens. If you’re the type to draw zeros on a regular basis, then there’s not much you can do. Well, I lied…you could opt to draft cards with command icons on them so that you can redraw those zeroes. Still, there’s no guarantee that you won’t get another zero. No matter how well you plan things out, those tokens may decide to turn against you resulting in a loss. Fortunately, luck doesn’t seem to discriminate so it’s possible that your opponent will suffer the same fate the next time around.

My favorite part of this game was with the initial drafting process…that is, deciding what components I wanted to keep and thus, how my ship was ultimately built. If I wanted, I could keep three blue defense cards in order to minimize damage or go all in with three attack cards and attempt to obliterate my opponent as quickly as possible. Of course, it’s important to not forget about the command and repair icons either, as both will assist you in staying alive. Being able to repair damage due to the whims of the aforementioned luck factor is quite convenient.

All in all, “Starship Battles” is an interesting and streamlined ship battler that’ll give you your “pew pew” fix in relatively short order. The card at is fantastic and I especially like the colors on the card backs. I do recommend that the developer spend more time on the rulebook, especially with regard to scenarios and crew cards. The price of $14.99 (as of 11/24/15) is on par with other card games on the market, allowing me to give it a recommend.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/starship-battles/feed/035011Ghostbusters: The Board Gamehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ghostbusters-the-board-game/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ghostbusters-the-board-game/#respondSun, 22 Nov 2015 17:33:53 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34895I think it’s safe to say that a lot of us “Ghostbusters” fans are starved for content, so seeing this game come out really got me excited…excited enough to splurge and pick it up. The last “Ghostbusters”-anything I played was the PC game, which is totally awesome and worth picking up. It’s as close to “Ghostbusters 3” as you’re going to get (what with the actual actors voicing the characters) and is probably going to be better than the upcoming movie with the all-female cast. “Ghostbusters: The Board Game” is a cooperative game that puts players in the shoes of Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston as they attempt to bust some ghosts. Will bustin’ make you feel good, or will you cross the streams resulting in life as you know it stopping and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light?

Ghostbusters: The Board Game – 1-4 Players, Ages 15+, Average Play Time = 30-60 Minutes per Scenario

“Ghostbusters: The Board Game” has multiple game modes, so game setup will vary. Players can opt for an episodic experience (2-4 hours) that spans multiple scenarios to where they level their characters up as they go. Alternatively, you can play one mission (30-60 minutes) with your level and abilities preplanned for you. Since each scenario is different, I’ll opt to quickly overview what a typical round plays like.

On the beginning of each round, each Ghostbuster takes a turn, being allotted two action points and one maneuver. Being slimed reduces your available standard action points by one. The actions include moving, driving, firing a proton stream, depositing a trap, and removing slime from yourself or another Ghostbuster. Manuevers include giving or taking trapped ghosts and entering/exiting Ecto-1. At the end of each round, an event die is rolled. The symbol rolled will mean different things, depending on the scenario.

Ghostbuster character sheets list an XP tracker across multiple levels, allowing you to unlock unique abilities as you play. They also come with their own colored stream tokens so you can keep track of who contributed to capturing a ghost. Ghost cards, on the other hand, list the roll required to hit and to capture, what happens when they get hit, and what happens when the Ghostbuster attacking them misses. The die and the PKE meter determines what direction the ghost will go in when prompted to move. In addition to having special abilities, ghosts can combine to form a much nastier ghost!

Play continues until players beat (or lose against) the chosen scenario or campaign.

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I’ll be honest, for $50-$60, I expected this game to be a bit more complicated. Most $50-$60 board games I own take a while to play and have a nice, hefty rulebook. The hardest gameplay mechanic for me to wrap my head around were all the rules associates with line of sight, but I got used to it after a few games. I’m not complaining mind you, just simply expressing my surprise. My guess is that you’re paying for the cost of the license (just as you would when buying Lego Star Wars or what have you) and the minis. I kind of like that the game is a bit more simplistic, though I wish it weren’t so reliant on successful die rolls. Egon has a reroll ability, for example, that helps offset the luck factor a bit…but for the most part you’re at the mercy of the combat and event dice.

That’s not to say that there isn’t strategy, though most of it will be coordinating with others on the use of your action points, maneuvers, and passive abilities. Each Ghostbuster has a unique way of gaining XP, outside of using streams to capture ghosts. Peter Venkman, for example, has a lot of abilities that actually reward him for getting slimed. Ray Stantz gets XP every time he helps de-slime a fellow Ghostbuster. Deciding where you all should be at any point in time is also something you’ll be thinking about…that is, will you split up and cover more ground, or stick together and take down ghosts a bit more easily by double/triple teaming them?

As fun as the campaign is, I find the one-off games to be a bit more accessible due to how busy I can get. The campaign is pretty fun, don’t get me wrong…it’s just that it can take over two hours to get through. There’s a sense of progression as you go from scenario to scenario, leveling up your character in the process. Of course, you can skip all the waiting and jump into something you’ve concocted to romp around in for a half hour. Another alternative is to write down your character’s name and XP level after a scenario finishes so that you can continue the campaign on another day.

All in all, we enjoyed our experience with this one. I didn’t care for the box insert…or rather lack thereof. The miniatures came in two plastic sheets each with their own mold (which was nice) inside another slightly smaller cardboard box. Unfortunately, there was no room for the other components once they were punched out, so I had to do away with the brown box and simply dumped all of the minis into the core box (which has no insert). The minis themselves are nice, some better than others. While nicely weighted, the Stay Puft mini wasn’t painted. The game also included streamer tokens of colors not belonging to the Ghostbusters, so I’m thinking they are for the extra characters that came as stretch goals during the KS campaign.

If you can get past the price tag and like cooperative games, then you’ll probably enjoy this title. While easy to play, the rules aren’t laid out all that well (I feel), so my advice is to reread the rulebook after you’re done the first time so as not to miss anything. Some reference cards would have been nice too.

Final Verdict: 6/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/ghostbusters-the-board-game/feed/034895Cypherhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cypher/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cypher/#respondSat, 21 Nov 2015 22:10:35 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34397I said a lot of great things about “Love Letter: Batman“, so I took a chance I picked up both “Cypher” and “Lost Legacy: The Starship” on a whim as they seemed to be somewhat similar. I have yet to play the latter, but “Cypher” appears to be like “Love Letter” in the sense that each character has special abilities that have a synergy with the others. However, “Cypher” takes it to a whole new level as it introduces a class system and gets rid of player elimination, among other things. Let’s have a look!

Cypher: 2-4 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 10 Minutes

Components

The game includes 19 character cards, 4 reference cards, 1 nexus bag, and a rule book.

Setup & Gameplay

The 19 character cards are shuffled and three cards are dealt to the starting player (who is chosen at random). The player to the right of the starting player gets one card and all the rest get two. The rest of the cards form a face down draw deck, with the top card being drawn face up to form the “display”. Each player also gets a reference card.

Editor’s Note: The setup and flow of play for two players is slightly different than what is listed here.

The active player will have three cards in their hand and perform the following actions:

1. Play – The player chooses one card to be played face up into their play area. The effects are resolved. A player’s play area can have a maximum of three cards. When playing a fourth card onto their play area, the player must discard one of the three existing cards to the bottom of the deck.

2. Draw – The player draws a card from the deck or the display, adding it to their hand. If the display is empty, it is refilled from the deck, face up.

3. Pass – The player passes one card from their hand to their left and one card from their hand to their right.

4. Discard – If the player has more than one card in their hand, they must discard down to one (they are placed face down below the draw deck).

Turns continue clockwise until the draw deck is empty or until someone plays a Cypher Anomaly card into their play area. ALL players get one final turn, including the person who triggered the end of the game. The person with the most influence in their play area, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Compared to “Love Letter: Batman”, this game is slightly more complicated (but in a good way). For one, there’s no player elimination, meaning you’ll be trying to deduce who has what from start to finish. The players in my group hated sitting out when they were eliminated in “Love Letter: Batman”, even if it was for only two to three minutes tops. We don’t have to worry about that here. The biggest challenge with “Cypher” is getting used to what all the different cards do and how they interact with one another. The upper class can net you a lot of points, but other cards don’t jive well when played in conjunction with them. Once you get used to it all, the gameplay flows relatively well.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/cypher/feed/034397Arboretumhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/arboretum/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/arboretum/#respondFri, 20 Nov 2015 23:40:24 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34888“Arboretum”, put simply, is a game about trees. Lots and lots of pretty, colorful looking trees. Your goal? Score the most points at the end of the game by creating the best looking & most luxurious arboretum. To do that, you’ll have to place cards in front of you in a grid-like fashion which will ultimately create various paths that will be scored at the game’s end. However, players have to earn the right to score a specific tree type in the first place based on what’s in their hands. Will you bark up the right tree and succeed in making something glorious, or will you make a like a tree and “get out of here”? Sorry, I watched “Back to the Future” recently…I couldn’t resist.

Arboretum: 2-4 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 30 Minutes

Components

The game includes 80 cards in 10 different colors (numbered 1 to 8), a score pad, and a rule book.

Setup & Gameplay

Firstly, some colors may be removed from the game depending on the number of players. Each player receives seven cards from the shuffled deck to form their starting hand (the rest of the cards form a draw deck). One card is also drawn face-up from the deck for each player so that they may begin their own personal discard pile (each player will have their own arboretum and discard pile). The player who last watered a plant goes first.

On a player’s turn, they’ll:

1. Draw two cards – The active player may take two cards from anyone’s face up discard pile or the deck.

2. Play a card – The active player plays a card from their hand to their arboretum, placing it adjacent to an existing card. Cards can not be covered up or moved.

3. Discard a card – The active player will discard a card from their hand into their personal discard pile. At the end of their turn, they’ll have seven cards in their hand.

Play continues clockwise until the deck runs out. The player who triggered this finishes their turn as normal, and then scoring occurs.

During the scoring phase, each tree type is looked at on the score pad, one at a time. The player who has the highest sum of a particular tree IN THEIR HAND has the right to score a single path in their arboretum. The exception is if someone has an “8” but someone else has a “1” of the same color…the “8” is reduced to “0”. If no one has cards of a particular color in their hand, then they all score it.

To score a color, players will attempt to find the best path in order to score the most points. In a path, each card must be greater in value than the one preceding it. A path starts and ends with a card of the color being scored, though cards in between can be of any color. Each card in a path is one point. Players score one additional point for each card in the path if it is made up of at least four cards and they are all the same color. Players also score one additional point if the path starts with “1” and two additional points if the path ends in “8”. It’s okay if a tree is used in more than one path. The player with the most points once all tree colors are scored, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Arboretum” is one of those games that is very easy to play…draw two cards, play one, discard one, and boom you’re done. The way this game scores however takes some getting used to. You see, a player may have the longest and highest scoring path of a particular color in their arboretum but if they don’t have the highest sum of that card color in their hand then they can’t score it. On top of that, a path must contain cards to where each is higher in value than the one preceding it AND the first & last card in that path must be of the color you’re scoring. Players get additional points too in various circumstances. Honestly, it’s a lot to keep track of.

“Arboretum” is very interesting as card games go, focusing heavily on card management (both in your hand AND in your personal grid). Paying attention to what other players are playing and discarding is helpful too, since the “1” and “8” cards mean something in both a player’s hand and on the table. It’s a beautiful game, not to mention fun to play. The cards themselves are of good quality too. Assuming you can find a copy of this game at a price you’re comfortable paying, I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. It was out of print for the longest time but recently came back into stock at places like Cool Stuff Inc. and Miniature Market for about $12-$15. The prices on Amazon will vary, having reached $30 at one point. I’d say $15-$20 would be fair for what you’re getting here.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/arboretum/feed/034888KLASKhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/klask/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/klask/#respondWed, 18 Nov 2015 21:48:01 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34515It’s been a while since I’ve played air hockey at the arcade…heck, it’s been a while since I’ve BEEN to an arcade. The ReplayFX event was a rare exception, but you generally won’t find as many arcades as you could twenty years ago…at least in my area. “KLASK” is similar to air hockey, but uses magnets and rolling balls instead of forced air. Before we touch on the rules and gameplay, I’d like to thank Kristian Ahjopalo for reaching out all the way from Finland and providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

KLASK: 2 Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 20-30 Minutes

Components

The game includes one table, two chips, four magnets, two yellow balls, two black striker pieces, one cloth bag, and a rule book.

Setup & Gameplay

Setting up the game is easy enough in that you’ll put the board between both players and place the three white magnetic pieces on the center line in their appropriate spots. You’ll put two coins next to the “0” to set the scoreboard. Each player will have a black magnetic gaming piece in two parts. They’ll place the short (thin) part on top of the board and the long (thick) part under the board in such a way so that the two parts “catch” each other. The youngest player goes first, placing the ball in their corner start field.

Players attempt to use their black piece to maneuver the ball around the field. A player scores a point if:

The ball lands in their opponent’s hole and stays in the hole.

Two or all of the three white magnetic pieces stick to their opponent’s gaming piece.

Their opponent accidentally pulls their gaming piece into their own goal hole.

If their opponent loses their gaming piece.

Each time a point is scored, the player moves their coin up the score track. The player who reaches the “6” first wins.

Some other rules worth mentioning:

If one of the white magnetic pieces sticks to a gaming piece, the game continues; if two of the white magnetic pieces stick to one gaming piece, the opponent gets one point.

If the ball falls over the edges of the board, you must place the ball in the corner start field in the half from which the ball fell.

If one or more white magnetic pieces fall over the edges of the board, the game continues.

Each time a player scores a point, you must put the white magnetic pieces back on the white fields on the board, and the player who did not score a point places the ball in their corner start field.

The Review

“KLASK”, I feel, will only appeal to a set niche of people. Sure, anyone can play “KLASK”…but if you’re not someone who enjoys playing dexterity games like Air Hockey, then it’ll overstay its welcome relatively quickly. The components are fairly good and the idea is unique, but that’s really the only good things that I can say about this game. The price tag is rather hefty and will set you back $59.99. Granted, you’re getting a mini-table and some pretty powerful magnets, but $59.99 is out of my personal price range for something like this. If you are a collector of table games and/or really, really enjoy Air Hockey, then you may find “KLASK” to be worth your time and money. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those people and I didn’t enjoy my experience with this one. Oh, and the slogan on the huge box the game came in needs some work…watch the video I posted below for specifics.

Final Verdict: 3/10

Editor’s Note: This is one instance where price had a huge impact on the review score. If money is not an issue for you, I’d say tack on a few points to my score and make it a 5/10.

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I’m told that the game will be sold in the US exclusively at “Marbles The Brain Store”:

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/klask/feed/034515Planeshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/planes/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/planes/#respondTue, 17 Nov 2015 22:29:07 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34370“Planes” is essentially “Mancala” with cards in an airport…I’ll let you wrap your head around that for a minute. Players are tasked with moving the cubes of their color to the matching plane. Cards exist to not only allow you to take special actions, but to give you a way to score extra victory points. Are YOU crafty and agile enough to get your party to the right terminal, or will you miss your flight? Either way, you’ll be pleased to know that you won’t have to be frisked at security nor will you have to deal with baggage claim hell.

There’s an entire page devoted to game setup in the manual, so I’ll simply offer the highlights. Players choose a starting player, then a color. Player 1 put the cubes of their color on the P1 space and in clockwise order, players follow suit utilizing the P2, P3, and P4 spaces (all color cubes will still be used, even in a two/three player game, to fill out the empty P spaces). Two neutral cubes are placed on all other empty spaces. Plane tokens are placed at the appropriate gates (P1 = G1, P2 = G2, etc.) and any color cubes not assigned to a player has their plane flipped to the “draw 2 cards” side up. Each player gets three cards from the shuffled draw deck to form their starting hand. Players may customize points of interest if they so wish.

The game is played over several rounds until all of the planes of a color are full or 12 or more cubes have board onto planes. A player’s turn consists of the following:

1. Action Phase (optional): Play one action by playing a card from your hand.

2. Move Phase (mandatory): Move one member of their party from one space to another. All cubes (regardless of color) are picked up and dropped one at a time onto the subsequent spaces (one cube per one space, like in “Mancala”). If the last cube in the player’s hand lands at a gate matching their color, they may board it. When this happens, the token on the boarding track is moved upward. When seven or more cubes occupy a single space, a blockage cone is placed there preventing anyone from advancing past it.

3. Goal Phase (optional): Play one card as a goal. The card remains face up for endgame scoring.

If the player has no cards in their hand at the end of their turn, they may draw one. When the endgame conditions are met and each player has had an equal number of turns, players add up their victory points (from boarding and goals) and whoever has the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I found “Planes” to be pretty interesting, but it didn’t wow me in any particular way. Anyone who has played “Mancala” will easily see the correlation between the two games, though this one has cards that can be used as either actions or goals (the latter of which nets you more victory points). I liked this dual role that the cards played as I often felt torn between using an action to help my cubes board their plane and saving it to try and satisfy the listed goal. There were a few times using an action could have netted me a successful boarding attempt, though it’s perfectly viable to sit on them and hope your opponent changes the board in your favor with their move (allowing you to board the plane without spending your card as an action).

The fact that you can use the points of interest tokens to change where they initially reside is a nice touch. If you don’t want them all to sit at the far ends of the board for example, then you can use blank tokens to cover some of those spaces up and put their matching tokens somewhere else. The manual recommends that for the sake of fairness that players keep things equal on both sides of the board, meaning if you place a help desk at G1 then you should also place one at G2, G3, and G4. There’s also a suggested hierarchy of availability listed (restrooms and fast food should be easier to find than help desks and restaurants, for example), though you’re free to mix things up at your leisure and unbalance the game however you’d like.

In addition to being able to switch up the points of interest, you can separate the cards by player dot colors so that each player has the exact same 15 cards to use in a personal draw deck (as opposed to the standard public one which includes all cards). You can also shorten the game by playing to “8” instead of “12” on the boarding track…though you can choose any number you want. All of these customizable features gives “Planes” a lot of replayability and flexibility, which should hopefully keep you coming back for more (assuming you enjoy actually playing the game). At $20 (the price on Amazon as of 10/19/15), I recommend giving this one a go.

The five line cards are placed in a vertical line with the 10 on top and 50 on the bottom. The five control cards are placed to the left of them in portrait orientation showing that neither the 0 nor 1 is in control of the lines. The RUN card is placed in the fourth position on the 50 line. One player takes the “1” deck while the other takes the “0” deck, taking one basic card (a “0”/”1″ without command text) and placing it aside temporarily. For the basic game, take out the CUT, PASTE, and SYNTAX ERROR cards. They’ll then shuffle their decks, place them number side up, and choose a starting player. The first player places their basic number to the immediate right of the 10, while the second player places their number to the immediate right of the 20. Players draw the top three cards from their deck to form their starting hand.

On a player’s turn, they MUST perform the following three actions:

1. INPUT – Play a card from their hand to the program. The card is played number side up and can be rotated upside-down. It must go in the left-most empty space on a program line (always to the right of the line cards). Except for the 10 and 20 line, no card may be played on the line below it until at least three cards are already placed there (some card commands ignore this rule). Once placed, a card cannot be rotated or moved unless a command forces it to happen. There is no limit to how many cards can be played on a line with the exception of the 50 line…no more than three can be played there as the RUN card takes up the fourth space.

2. EXECUTE – If the card played had command text, it will activate. Commands go into effect immediately upon playing them. The card affected by the command is the card that the command text is directed towards.

3. LOAD – The player draws up to three cards. Players can never have more than three cards and they can never trash cards.

As players lay down cards, they’ll be able to control program lines. To control a program line, the player needs to have more cards of their number on that line than their opponent AND the line must contain at least three cards. When a player controls a line, the control card to the left of the line is rotated appropriately.

The game ends when the third card is played on line 50, or when a player tries to draw a card but can’t because their deck is depleted. Players add up their points by looking to see what lines they control…10 is worth ten points, 20 is worth twenty points, and so on. Whoever has the most points, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

At first glance, the game looked complicated (at least to me). Perhaps part of this is due to the fact that I often don’t play games with a theme based around binary and programming language. I used to dabble with Basic, QBasic, and True Basic back when I was younger, but it’s admittedly been a while. Luckily, you wouldn’t have to know an ounce of code to understand how this game is played. Essentially, you’re trying to get more of your number on each of the five lines in order to score points. That’s a gross oversimplification of the rules, but that’s really all it boils down to.

How you accomplish your goals is something altogether different. Some cards contain command text that’s oriented in a particular direction, allowing you to do some helpful or evil things, depending on the situation. The DELETE command removes the neighboring card from the game for example, while the ENTER command allows the player to move the neighboring card to the next line. IF…THEN commands flip one’s to zero’s and vice versa and SAVE protects both it and the neighboring card for the rest of the game. There are some other command cards available in the advanced rule set (SYNTAX ERROR, etc.) should you want to add more chaos to the mix. Players can also opt to show their hands, making the game a lot more strategic as you’ll constantly be trying to plan things out moves in advance.

I like this game…it’s quick and easy to play but still packs a punch strategically. The theme is certainly more unique than most as I don’t have any other game in my collection quite like it. As such, “One Zero One” is very easy to recommend especially at its price point of $15.99 (on Amazon as of 11/13/15).

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/one-zero-one/feed/034494Yardmasterhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/yardmaster/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/yardmaster/#respondThu, 12 Nov 2015 01:56:22 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34509If you’ve ever watched Thomas the Tank Engine, then you’ll know that freight cars are cheeky little buggers. How Sir Topham Hat is able to stay in business by having trains pull one or two cars at a time is beyond me, but we’re not here to talk about that today. Rather, we’re going to talk about “Yardmaster”, a game that tasks players with loading their train first by reaching their point goal. Will YOU be very useful, or end up causing confusion and delay? Hey, his words…not mine.

The cards are separated into their three deck: engines, railcars, and cargo. Each player gets an engine which is placed face up in front of them (unused ones are discarded). The railcar deck is shuffled and three are drawn face up to form the community arrival yard. The cargo deck is shuffled and each player receives three cargo cards to form their hand. The four exchange tokens are shuffled and each player receives one (extras are placed nearby). The yardmaster token is given to the player to the right of the starting player.

On a player’s turn, they’ll perform two actions from a total of three different options. These actions can be repeated, as well as be performed in any order. The owner of the yardmaster can take three actions instead of two.

1. Draw a cargo card from the deck or the top of the discard pile and add it to your hand. You cannot do the latter if the top card in the discard pile is a bonus card.

2. Buy one railcar from the arrival yard. You’ll discard cargo from your hand equal to the number and color on the railcar you want to buy (a blue 3 railcar costs 3 blue cargo cards). A new card is drawn from the railcar deck to refill the arrival yard. Players can use their exchange rate token (which they keep) to discard cards of a different type for their target color. If you have a red 2:1 token, then you can discard two red cargo cards to make them equal one cargo card color of your choice. After buying a railcar, you’ll place it behind your engine but ONLY if it matches the color or point value of the railcar in front of it. Players can place railcars in a sorting yard to be placed behind their engine later, as a free action.

3. Swap exchange rate tokens with another player or from any extras that may be on the table.

At the end of your turn, you’ll pass the yardmaster token to the right. In a two player game, after using the token, it’s passed to the other player face down. Instead of being used by the other player immediately, they’ll need to wait until the following turn to flip it face up and use it. If you have more than seven cargo cards, then you’ll need to discard down to seven. The player to reach or exceed the point goal (20 in a 2 player game, 18 in a 3 player game, 16 in a 4 player game), wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

“Yardmaster” reminds me a bit of “UNO”, but with a train theme. In “UNO” you’re attempting to discard cards that match the number or color of the card in the discard pile. Here, you’re laying down sets of cards behind an engine with the same stipulation…that is, the railcar you lay down must be of the same number or color as the one in front of it. This game has mechanics that may appeal to gamers that find “UNO” too simplistic however, what with the inclusion of an exchange rate token, an action points pool, and a yardmaster token that gives the owner an extra action point to use on their turn.

With that said, this isn’t a complex game compared to the others you’ll find on the market. It’ll easily appeal to casual gamer families as well as to hardcore ones looking for a quick filler. There is a bit of luck involved which may turn some off, though there is some strategy in the way you assign your action points and lay out the railcars behind your train. Swapping out and/or using exchange rate tokens can also be strategic in that it’ll allow you to lay down the set you want, but it’ll cost you in one way or another to do it (using an action point to swap the token in the first place, using two cards to perform the swap for one card, etc.).

The price fluctuates between $20 and $25 on Amazon. While part of me considers this price higher than average (I usually see card games market for about $10-$15), the quality of both the card and the box are superb. The artwork is “OK”…sleek in some places, bland in others. All in all, this game does everything it strives to be and more.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/yardmaster/feed/0345092015 DGA Awardshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dga-awards-2015/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dga-awards-2015/#respondMon, 09 Nov 2015 14:46:39 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=342392015 has been a pretty good year for DGA. My YouTube channel has reached 9,000+ subscribers and contains over 2,500 videos, a far cry from last year’s numbers. While being diligent with my content is part of the reason the numbers continue to grow, it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of gamers like you. It also helps that there are a TON of awesome games out there just waiting for someone to discover and play them. Yes, it’s that time of year again folks…the 2015 DGA Awards are upon us!

Like the previous years, I’ll be listing my favorite games regardless of their release date. It just wouldn’t be fair to list the “Best Games of 2015” or the “Best Games of All Time” when I haven’t played them all. DGA just isn’t popular enough for that yet and I receive maybe fifty to seventy-five board games every year, which doesn’t put a dent in the total amount of games published in said year. As such, I find those kinds of titles misleading despite their obvious SEO benefits. All of the games listed below are games that I own. It doesn’t mean that they are the best…it means they are my favorite out of all of the games in my collection at this point in time. It’s important to remember that before leaving a comment like, “but you forgot about X”.

For a list of the games I do own and have played, click on either the “Board Games” or “Video Games” tabs above. I’ve covered many video games on my YouTube Channel that I haven’t here, so go check that out too. It just became more convenient to release video game content via “let’s plays” due to the sheer volume of press copies I get. Each board game entry will have a link to the written article, which in turn contains Amazon and other links for buying the game for yourself. If an article doesn’t have an Amazon link, use the Amazon search tool off to the right. Each video game entry will have a link to one of the videos published to my YouTube channel (which usually has a link to its Steam page). Hopefully the below will give you some ideas for your upcoming holiday shopping…no need to thank me, I’m awesome that way.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/dga-awards-2015/feed/034239Star Trek: Five-Year Missionhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/star-trek-five-year-mission/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/star-trek-five-year-mission/#respondSun, 08 Nov 2015 17:58:47 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34593Who’s ready to boldly go? I thought so…after all, who can resist the feeling of raising shields and exploring the unknown with the iconic characters we all know and love? “Star Trek: Five-Year Mission” does exactly that, tasking players with cooperatively getting through a multitude of events (called alerts) we’ve seen in the various episodes on television. Get through enough alerts before the Enterprise explodes and you win the game, though failing enough to plunge the Alpha Quadrant into darkness is indeed a real possibility. Will you choose characters from “The Original Series” or “Next Generation” (yes, you can play as either) and more importantly, will you succeed where they did?

Firstly, players will choose which era to play as (TOS or TNG), flip the boards to the appropriate side, and take the alert cards of the other era out of the game (those that list both can stay in). Players choose one character and receive one yellow, two blue, and two red dice (it’s recommended that players include a Captain and Doctor to make the game easier). Each alert deck is shuffled separately, with the “To Boldly Go” card placed under the blue alert deck. In a 3-4 Player game, add 1 blue, red, and yellow die to the dice pool on the Enterprise condition board, otherwise nothing is placed there except for the damage marker (which is placed on the start space). The Captain goes first with play proceeding clockwise.

A player observes five phases on their turn:

1. Draw a new alert card – The player draws a card from one of the three decks. The colors they can choose from depends on what color the damage marker sits. If the marker is on a blue space, then the player can choose any of the three decks. If it’s on yellow, then they can only choose to draw from the yellow or red decks, and etc. Persistent effects are observed. If more than three alerts of a color are laid out, then the oldest immediately fails and is placed into the fail pile. Five fails and the game ends in a loss for all players.

2. Replenish Dice – If the player has less than five dice on their board (split between their injury and action spaces), then they may take from the pool until they have five.

3. Roll Dice – The player rolls the dice taken during replenishment and any dice they want in their action space. Dice in the injury space are not rolled. The results are placed in the action space.

4. Place Dice – The player may assign dice in their action space to alert cards and/or use them for special abilities. You can also repair the Enterprise in this manner. Completed alert cards with a Starfleet insignia on them go in the victory points pile. Completed alert cards with special one-time use abilities are placed in front of the active player. Completed alert cards without either are discarded into that color’s discard pile.

5. End Turn – Any unused dice stay in the player’s action space and play moves clockwise.

A player may skip steps 2-4 to heal themselves by taking one die from the injury space and placing it into the dice pool. If the damage marker goes off the last space, the Enterprise is destroyed and the game ends. If players manage to satisfy the victory condition (depends on the difficulty level, but usually involves completing a number of alerts with the Starfleet insignia on them), they’ll win the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

First and foremost, I bought this game because I’m a huge Star Trek fan. Luckily, you don’t have to be a Star Trek fan in order to enjoy this game. You could slap a Lord of the Rings or Star Wars theme onto this and it would function just as well. The gameplay mechanics are that sound. Speaking of which, I enjoyed the resource management aspect of the game as this forces players to coordinate and go after a few alert cards at a time. “Star Trek: Five-Year Mission” is like “Roll For It!” in that regard in that you have a limited number of dice to assign across multiple cards. I also found this game to be reminiscent of “Elder Sign” in that you’re rolling dice to resolve cards as quickly as possible, lest they pile up and result in a fail condition (only three alerts per color can be present at a time or they begin failing automatically).

The minimum player count of three is recommended, but not necessary to play the game. You can play solo or with two players IF you’re willing to be creative as the manual does not list any variants. In the case of two players, I found that if each player controlled two people (each of which has their own dice), then you’ll be fine. You could also try sharing a third crew member. The game can easily be modded to suit your play style so if you wanted to make it easier, you could ignore the timed alerts and/or add more dice to the starting dice pool. Just be forewarned that it’s harder to manage multiple character boards at once than it is for each player to be responsible for their own. If you’re able to juggle multiple boards in other games you might play, then this won’t be a problem.

Just to quickly sum this up for you, “Star Trek: Five-Year Mission” most certainly has all the makings of a great cooperative game. The character’s abilities and the ability to take dice from a central pool will keep all involved engaged, even when it’s not their turn. The fact that you can easily switch from The Original Series to The Next Generation from game to game is a nice touch. It’s a shame that the developers couldn’t include some solo/two player variants, because the 3-7 player limit may turn some off as soon as they look at the box. Luckily, we’re smart enough to use our imaginations, assuming you’re not the immovably rigid type and HAS to play exactly as the rule book states. That would be a shame, as this is one five-year mission that you won’t want to miss.

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/star-trek-five-year-mission/feed/034593Rolling Americahttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/rolling-america/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/rolling-america/#respondSun, 08 Nov 2015 14:38:57 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34569Gamewright has been releasing a lot of dice games as of late, but I’m not going to complain. After all, “Dragonwood” and “Qwixx” turned out to be a lot of fun (just to name a few). “Rolling America” tasks players with filling in their individual map of the USA with numbers rolled on the dice. How well they group and position these numbers will ultimately determine who wins the game. Before we stand to respect our great country’s National Anthem (and shame on you if you don’t know it), I’d like to thank Marketing Coordinator Nora Meiners from Gamewright for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.

Rolling America: 1+ Players, Ages 8+, Average Play Time = 15 Minutes

Components

The game includes 100 map sheets of the USA, 7 dice of different colors (1 is wild), 1 dice bag, and a rules sheet.

Setup & Gameplay

Each player gets a map and all of the dice are placed in the bag. Whoever last visited another state starts the game, with play proceeding clockwise.

On a player’s turn, they’ll randomly draw two dice from the bag and roll them, announcing their colors and numbers. All players then resolve both dice, in any order. To resolve a die, choose one empty state in the region of the map that matches the die color and write down the die number in that state. If the die is wild, then choose one empty state in any region and do the same thing.

There are, of course, some rules to follow. All states that border the state (regardless of color) that they are currently filling must either be blank, have an X, be guarded, or have a number difference of no greater than one from the die result (Alaska and Hawaii are the exception). If a player can’t follow this rule, then they’ll choose an empty state of that color and mark an “X”. If that region (a group of colored states) is full, then the player simply does nothing.

Players can perform special actions during the game to give themselves an advantage. Those include:

1. Color Change: Three times during the game you may treat the die you are resolving as a wild. For example, an orange 6 could be a purple 6. When you do a color change, you must cross off one of the Color Change boxes on your map.

2. Guard: Three times during the game you may guard a number that you write in a space. This means that you can ignore the “Neighboring State” rule for that number. Circle the number to indicate that it’s guarded, and then cross off one of the Guard boxes on your map.

3. Dupe: Three times during the game you may write down an active die number twice in the
matching color region. (A wild can be marked in two different regions.) For example, if you roll a blue 3, you can mark a 3 in two states in the blue region. (Note that the neighboring State rules still applies.) When you do this, you must cross off one of the Dupe boxes on your map.

When all players have resolved the dice, they’ll count the number of dice out of the bag. If fewer then six, then the next player takes their turn. When six dice ARE out of the bag, then the round ends and players mark off the next round box on their sheet. All dice are then put back into the bag and play continues.

At the end of eight rounds, players mark an X on any state not filled in and pass their sheet to the left so that their opponent can check their plays to make sure the rules were followed. Mistakes are marked with an X. Players then count the number of X’s they have and write it in the appropriate box…the player with the fewest, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

Firstly, I’m rather thankful that I don’t have to know my US geography in order to play this game. I’m sorry New Hampshire, but I couldn’t find you on the map if my life depended on it. Rather, the only real skill that’s being tested here is your ability to organize random numbers on a map as best you can given certain parameters. Sure, it looks easy at first…put a number here, a number there, and everything’s peachy. That is, until you realize that you set yourself up for some impossible plays in the future by surrounding blank spaces with numbers on each extreme end of the range. The stipulation that bordering states must be within “1” of each other will really make you think about where you’re assigning your numbers.

Of course, the game does help you out in a number of ways. I am not sure how well I’d do without the ability to color change, guard, or dupe…each of which you can do three times per game. Guarding, or the ability to circle a number so that it ignores the main bordering rule, is probably my favorite. It got me out of some pretty nasty situations. Despite your best efforts though, luck will play a significant role as you’re limited by the colors picked and the values rolled. After all, you can activate those abilities only so many times before you’re forced to accept that dreaded “X”…they add up before you know it.

My only concern with “Rolling America” is that the game only comes with 100 sheets. If you’re only playing solo or with another player, then you’ll get a lot of play time out of the game before you’re forced to restock. It’s great that the game has no maximum player limit, but in groups of five to ten, you’ll be through those pads before you know it. Luckily, scanning/copying technology does indeed exist, so be sure to save a few sheets. At $10.99 (the price on the official website as of 11/7/15), this game is well worth picking up if you enjoy casual dice games with a light strategic spin to them.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/rolling-america/feed/034569Morelshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/morels/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/morels/#respondSat, 07 Nov 2015 16:24:08 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34327Mushroom Varietal Points…now THERE’S a term I’ve never heard used before. I suppose I should have expected it, seeing as how “Morels” is all about mushrooms. In short, “Morels” is a set collecting game that tasks players with gathering & cooking three or more like mushrooms in order to earn MVPs. Alternatively, they can sell sets of two or more for foraging sticks, which act as currency and allows them to expand their future collecting options. Sounds rather tasty…just keep an eye out for the Destroying Angel for it’ll make you incredibly sick. Allow me to explain…

The night and day decks are shuffled separately. Eight are drawn face-up from the day deck to form the forest, a long horizontal row between the two players. Each player gets three cards from the day deck to form their starting hand, along with one pan token. Two cards on one end of the forest will be considered “At your feet”, representing the location of the two players at all times. The empty space beside it will be known as the decay pile, which is where mushrooms go as they are left behind. As players take from the forest, cards slide toward the decay pile and new ones are drawn at the other end.

On a player’s turn, they MUST perform one of the following actions (no passing):

1. Take a card from the forest, so as long as it doesn’t exceed their hand limit of eight cards. The cards “at your feet” are free. The rest require foraging sticks equal to one stick per card beyond the two “at your feet”. The third card out from the two “at your feet”, for example, would cost three foraging sticks. Collected mushrooms are placed into the player’s hand. Collected baskets (increases your hand limit by two) or destroying angels (limits your hand size) go into their play area without them counting against their hand limit. Moon cards are immediately discarded and the player will then draw a night card to add to their hand.

2. Take all cards from the decay, so as long as it doesn’t exceed their hand limit.

3. Cook three or more like mushrooms (one type of mushroom per turn). A pan card or pan token is required. Butter can be played along with them to add more points, however you’ll need a set of four or more mushrooms. Cider acts the same way, but needs a set of five or more mushrooms. A pan can only be used once.

4. Sell two or more like mushrooms (one type of mushroom per turn). These cards are discarded and the player takes the appropriate number of foraging sticks (each mushroom lists a foraging stick value). The players earn sticks per card, not per set.

5. Play an empty pan. To free up space in a player’s hand, they can play an empty pan card in front of them to be used on a future turn.

After a player does on of these, they’ll move the closest card to the decay into the decay. The decay can never have more than four cards (if it does, the cards are discarded). The cards then slide toward the decay to fill empty spots. More cards are drawn from the day deck on the far side of the forest so that it has eight cards.

Players continue taking turns until no cards remain in the forest. Players add up the MVP on each cooked mushroom (doubling the MVP on night cards) as well as any butter or cider cards in their MVP pile. The person with the most points, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

A set-collecting game at heart, “Morels” is easy to pick up and play. The effects of the destroying angel can be a little confusing at first…luckily there’s a Q&A in the back of the manual. The artwork is eye-catching and the gameplay pretty fun. I like that the cards serve a dual purpose in that players can choose to either use it for VP or earn sticks, the latter of which can be used to expand upon your picking options in the future. It’s a little pricey at $25 (the current price on Amazon as of 11/6/15), but still worth picking up if you enjoy two player light-strategy games.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/morels/feed/034327Airshipshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/airships/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/airships/#respondFri, 06 Nov 2015 12:44:11 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34479While this game was published in 2007, I hadn’t heard of it until about a month ago. I seem to be doing that a lot lately…finding stuff I don’t expect under the “you may also like” section of Amazon’s various game pages. “Airships” tasks players with building a fleet of airships (surprise, surprise) with the intent on earning the most victory points. It can be compared to “Splendor”, but with a lot of dice rolling and calculating probabilities. I suppose I should explain the game a bit more before doing any more comparisons, so let’s get to it!

There’s an entire page devoted to game setup so I’ll opt to simplify things in order to keep this review moving. Suffice it to say that each player receives a company board and an entrepreneur card for the country of their choice, along with a starter-expansion card. The airship and expansion decks are set up and seeded in a specific way so that the easier-to-acquire cards come out first. The former cards are the primary way to earn points while the latter power up the player in various ways. The oldest goes first, receiving three bonus chips from the bank (everyone else gets four).

On a player’s turn, they’ll observe the following actions:

1. Turning over an expansion card – The top card of the expansion deck is drawn and placed onto its appropriate row on the board…which is in the row of the same color and as far to the left as possible. If the row is full (already has three cards), then the cards shift to the left with the left most card being discarded. The drawn card is then placed on the now empty far-right space. When the change of era card appears, players turn their entrepreneur cards over, allowing players to use an additional red die. The change of era card is then discarded.

2. Acquisition of an expansion or airship card – The player will choose a card on the board (airship or expansion) and attempt to acquire it by rolling dice. The value needed to meet or exceed is listed on the card. Cards also list how many dice are to be considered after the roll is complete…meaning you can throw as many dice as your personal board allows, but may only choose as many dice as are listed on the card when summing your total. A maximum of three dice of one color can be used for each throw. The player will add the card to their player board when successful with the roll, discarding an existing expansion card of the same color when present. Airship cards simply get stacked on top of one another. Players may use bonus chips, the wooden airship, and/or expansion cards to help them reach their goal. A player who fails the roll gets a bonus chip from the supply and ends their turn.

A player can spend three bonus chips to take another turn, if they so choose. When the D-LZ129 Hindenburg field becomes visible on the board (because one pile of airship cards have been used up), players may also participate in the building of the Hindenburg by throwing dice in the same way. This new action takes up a player’s turn and each construction phase can be completed only once. The game ends when only one card is on each of the four airship card fields or when the Hindenburg’s fourth construction phase is completed. Players total their victory points and whoever has the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

This game can indeed be compared to “Splendor” in the way it plays…that is, you’ll start with the ability to throw only a few dice and then have more options available to you as you acquire more expansion cards. Financiers, for example, offer their owner one to three additional dice and the ability to sometimes earn extra VP when owning it at the end of the game. Engineers, on the other hand, offer an additional imaginary die of a fixed value. Engines work in a similar fashion, but add +1 or +2 to every dice rolled of a particular color. There are more expansions/upgrades than this, but you get the idea.

Unlike “Splendor”, this game is less pretty visually but makes up for it with its heavy focus on probabilities. White dice only have two 1’s, two 2’s, and two 3’s while black ones have two 4’s, two 6’s, and two 8’s. Red dice fall somewhere in the middle containing a 2, a 5, and two 3’s and 4’s. As such, you’ll be trying to gauge what your success rate will be going after particular cards. Most cards limit you in the sense that you can roll a maximum of three dice per color, but only allow you to use one or two of the die results. I like that you can also switch your focus at any time from expansions to airship cards and vice versa, though you can only have one expansion of that color on your board at a time. This game offers choices and plenty of them.

While I enjoy playing “Splendor” more than “Airships”, I do think that “Airships” is a pretty good game. “Splendor” doesn’t have dice rolling, so players have more control over their actions and their intended acquisitions. It’s possible for players to be a bit unlucky in “Airships” based on some bad dice rolls, though there are various ways for players to offset this via bonus chips, the wooden airship, and expansion cards. I also didn’t like the length of the board…it reminded me of Spaceball One in that it kept going and going. With that said, I grabbed “Airships” for about $15 on Amazon (as of 10/28/15) and I can safely say that the purchase was worth it based on the content and replayability offered here. Give this one a go if you like “Splendor” and/or dice rolling games that encourage players to mentally calculate probabilities.

Final Verdict: 7/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/airships/feed/034479Sheeplandhttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/sheepland/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/sheepland/#respondThu, 05 Nov 2015 11:07:48 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34473Folks couldn’t leave well enough alone. You see, Sheepland was a nice place…full of rolling green meadows, lush forests, and majestic mountains. Don’t worry, it’s not being invaded by orcs, trolls, or anything like that. Rather, someone had the bright idea of putting up fences (probably someone who had stock in Sheepland Timber Company). As a shepherd, you must compete with other shepherds in getting the most profitable lands by herding sheep onto land that you own. Then there’s the black sheep, whose rare black wool is worth a bit more. Will YOU be the richest shepherd in Sheepland?

Firstly, the black sheep is placed in Sheepsburg while one sheep is placed in each of the remaining eighteen regions. The six starting tiles are shuffled and each player receives one (the rest go back into the box unseen). The terrain tiles are sorted by terrain type in stacks with zeroes on top and fours on the bottom. Each player chooses a color and receives the matching shepherd pawn along with 20 dinars. A first player is chosen and they receive the first player token. Starting with them and going clockwise, players place their shepherd onto any unoccupied numbered road space.

Editor’s Note: In a two player game, each player starts with 30 dinars and uses two shepherd pawns. On each turn, a player chooses one and takes their actions using only that shepherd.

On a player’s turn, they’ll roll the die to see if the black sheep moves. If the rolled number matches an adjacent road space of equal value, it moves to the opposite side of that road. It cannot move onto a space occupied by a fence or shepherd.

After that, the player must take three of the following actions:

1. Move Their Shepherd – A shepherd stays on the numbered road spaces, while sheep sit on the land tiles. Shepherds cannot move to a space already occupied by a fence or player. When a player moves their shepherd to an adjacent unoccupied road space, it’s free. Moving to any other unoccupied space costs one dinar. After moving, the player places a fence on the space they moved from. The final fences are only placed once the regular fences are used.

2. Move 1 Sheep – The player moves any one sheep from either of the regions adjacent to their space to the other region.

3. Buy 1 Terrain Tile – The player pays to bank to buy a terrain tile that matches either of the two regions adjacent to their shepherd.

That player may perform any action in any order, though one of their actions must be to move their shepherd. If the player does perform the same action twice, they must move the shepherd before taking the action a second time.

When all of the regular fences have been placed, the final phase begins and play continues until each player has had an equal number of turns (using the final fences as appropriate). Players calculate the value of each terrain tile they have by counting the number of sheep in those regions across the land. If there is one sheep on a mountain region and two more sheep on another mountain region, then the mountain tile is worth three points. If a player has two mountain tiles, then they’d have six points for that region. The player with the most points once scores are calculated, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I’d classify “Sheepland” as a light strategy game, one focused on predicting which commodity (in this case, land type) will be the most valuable at the end of the game. It’s right up there with “The Settlers of Catan” in the sense that it’s fairly easy to play but still offers players the chance to strategize and think a bit. For example, land tiles of a particular type get more expensive as they are purchased. This mechanic will make picking up tiles in the beginning a no-brainer, though toward the end you’ll most likely pause to consider whether or not spending three/four coin on a particular land type will be worth it in the end. After all, moving your shepherd anywhere on the board for one coin will have its advantages too as fences will block a lot of paths/roads by then.

The components are of good quality and pleasing on the eyes. My only complaint was with the board as it doesn’t tend to lay flat after being unfolded. The theme is family-friendly and the rules not hard to teach, making this game ideal for family game night. The price on Amazon (as of 11/4/15) is just under twenty bucks, meaning it won’t break the bank to buy. All of these things make the game easy to recommend to gamer families, though it could serve as a filler in between longer play sessions. What are you waiting for…go get your “Baa Ram Ewe” on already!

Final Verdict: 8/10

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]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/sheepland/feed/034473Iron Horseshttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/iron-horses/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/iron-horses/#respondWed, 04 Nov 2015 11:16:13 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34532One of the first games I played as a kid wasn’t Poker, Blackjack, or anything derived from your standard deck of fifty-two cards. It was a little French game called “Mille Bornes” released by Parker Brothers back in 1971 (though its original publication was 1954). It is widely believed that “Mille Bornes” was derived from “Touring”, which was originally produced in 1906 and picked up by Parker Brothers in 1925. Essentially, it’s a road race game where players try to get to the goal line by laying down distance/mile cards while trying to deal with hazards via remedies and safeties. “Iron Horses” works much the same way, though it takes places in the 19th century where railroads dominated commerce. Before we begin, I’d like to thank Chris Rossetti, the Founder, CFO, and Lead Designer for Rampage Games LLC, for providing me with a press copy of both the standard version and the Limited Edition for review purposes.

To keep things simple I’ll opt to explain the rules from the smaller $14.99 version and talk more about the Limited Edition in the review. No worries, both versions play the same way. Firstly, each player chooses one of the four railways to play as for the rest of the game. The rest of the cards are shuffled face down and each player receives five to form their starting hand. The youngest player goes first with play proceeding clockwise.

A player is allowed to take three actions on their turn. Players can take these actions in any order and can repeat actions if they want to. These actions are:

1. Draw – Draw a card from the deck. If the draw pile runs out, shuffle the discard pile and use it as a new deck.

2. Transport – Play a resource card from your hand. Some sabotage cards limit or prevent you from taking this action.

3. Remedy – Discard a remedy card OR $100,000 to discard a setback card that has been played against you. The latter can be played from your hand or from the play area in front of you. No change is given if you have to pay more than $100,000 because you don’t have exact change.

4. Sabotage – Play a sabotage card against another player. A player can have multiple setbacks/sabotage cards in their play area, however no more than one copy of each.

A player may use their railway’s special action once per game. This special action does not count as a regular action (there are some cards in both versions, like Master Cards, that also do not require an action to play). Once the three actions are taken, the player discards down to eight cards. The first player to successfully transport $1,000,000.00, wins the game!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

It’s hard not to compare this game to “Mille Bornes” or “Touring”, as the general idea and flow of play is the same. All of these games encourage players to reach some type of value first all the while laying down cards that stop others in their tracks. While not exactly original, “Iron Horses” does feature an appealing theme and nice artwork. I do like that the railways each have a unique ability that can be used once per game, though some way to reset it might have been nice (paying resources, etc.). That’s something I haven’t seen before in the aforementioned games and adds a bit more strategy to gameplay. Speaking of strategy…

While it may not be obvious to some, there is more to the game than simply laying down cards. Hand management and how often you take what actions is crucial. If you tend to hoard cards by drawing constantly, you may find yourself unable to catch up to someone who’s laying down resource cards like no one’s business. Then again, not drawing enough can leave you stuck when someone plays a sabotage against you. It’s a delicate balance, though you’re free to play how you want to suit your individual play style (rushing vs. hording, etc,).

So what’s the difference between the Limited Edition and the smaller version? Honestly, not too much. The card backs and the card art appear to be exactly the same. The cards in both are also the same size. The Limited Edition does include more cards overall…eight railways instead of four for example, giving it more of a punch in terms of variety. The Limited Edition also has a money tracker for each player and two train meeples each for said tracker…one to track the ten-thousands digit and one to track the one-hundred thousands digit (a meeple on the $500,000 and a meeple on the $75,000 signifies you have $575,000). Lastly, the box on the Limited Edition is sturdier, but slightly larger.

“Iron Horses” is light, fun, and charming. Again, it doesn’t win any awards in the originality department, but at $14.99 (the price on The Game Crafter as of 11/4/15 for the smaller version) it deserves your attention. The Limited Edition is indeed the better game of the two, though I’m not sold that a few extra components is worth an extra ten dollars. I mean, you don’t NEED the tracker & meeples if you know how to organize the cards and keep score by doing some quick math. With that said, the extra cards you get with the Limited Edition are nice to have. Having played both, I honestly prefer the Limited Edition. Again, I’d like to stress that I probably would have gone with the smaller version if I were forced to buy one or the other. The price difference is just too difficult to ignore, but I’m somewhat of a penny-pincher to begin with.

As a side note, you can buy the print and play version for $.99 if you fancy doing some of the work yourself. No worries, I have links to all three versions below. Regardless of which one you choose, I think you’ll be in for a good time.

]]>http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/iron-horses/feed/034532Tides of Timehttp://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tides-of-time/
http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/tides-of-time/#respondSat, 31 Oct 2015 02:31:50 +0000http://www.dadsgamingaddiction.com/?p=34423I liked “Fairy Tale“, though all the information displayed on the cards resulted in sensory overload my first few times out. Despite the learning curve, I began to appreciate it more and more over time…so much in fact that I sought out other games with a similar drafting mechanic. “Tides of Time”, while only supporting two players as opposed to Fairy Tale’s five, seemed interesting enough to pick up. I admit, the attractive $12 price tag (on Amazon as of 10/21/15) had something to do with it. Let’s see how it compares with “Fairy Tale”, shall we?

The cards are shuffled and five are dealt to each player to form their starting hands. The rest of the cards are placed face down to form a draw pile.

The game is played over three rounds. At the end of each round, players total their victory points based on the fulfilled scoring objectives on each card. After the third round scoring, VPs are totaled and the winner is determined.

Round 1

Players simultaneously choose a card from their hand and place it face down in front of them. They all reveal them at the same time, keeping them face up in their individual kingdoms. Players then pass their hand clockwise and repeat the process until all cards have been played. Scores are recorded on the notepad.

After scoring, players take all the cards from their kingdom back into their hand. Each player chooses one card which they will leave in their kingdom for the rest of the game (called “relic of the past”) and a second one to discard from the game. Players reveal their chosen cards simultaneously. The cards remaining in play should be marked with the Relic tokens as a reminder to the players that these cards stay in their Kingdoms, and provide their suit and ability for the remainder of the game. The discarded cards are returned face up to the game box and they will not be used in the remaining rounds.

Each player draws 2 new cards from the Draw pile so that they each have 5 cards in their hand. They can then proceed to the next round.

Round 2

Same as round 1, except that at the end of the round (after VPs are calculated), players only take the cards played in round 2 back into their hand. The “relic of the past” from round 1 stays in their kingdom. Players will still choose one card to place in their kingdom (as a second “relic of the past”) and one card to discard from the game. At the end of this round, players will have two relics in play and five cards in their hand.

Round 3

Same as round 1, but it ends when VPs are calculated. The VPs from all rounds are summed and the player with the most, wins!

Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

The Review

I’d have to say that “Tides of Time” is a much lighter version of “Fairy Tale”. The latter is accessible to more players (2-5) and offers more in terms of content (more cards, etc.). With that said, it’s also a bit more confusing to play at times, especially when utilizing the expert rules. It could just be me, but I occassionally look at those cards and get sensory overload. I didn’t have that problem in “Tides of Time” as the set collecting rules are pretty straight forward…”for each X you gain 3 VPs” or “If you have more X than your opponent you gain 7 VPs”.

Unlike “Fairy Tale”, all cards in front of you are placed back into your hand after scoring in the first or second round…though you can keep one out as a “Relic of the Past” for a future round. Players also discard one for the rest of the game. These two little differences offer some strategic opportunities for both players, allowing them to possibly reuse cards they’ve played in a prior round or get rid of something their opponent might find favorable.

All things considered, “Tides of Time” offers a lighter drafting game but still provides players with a good bit of choices to make. The cards are larger than what I expected and the artwork is well done. Further, the price ($12 on Amazon as of 10/22/15) is on par with other ga